The Netherlands and Denmark will give their F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine once conditions for the transfer have been met, said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Sunday. The announcement came during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who was on a visit to the Netherlands. "Today we can announce that the Netherlands and Denmark commit to the transfer of F-16 aircraft to Ukraine and the Ukrainian Air Force," in cooperation with the U.S. and other allies, he said.
The Netherlands has 42 F-16 fighter jets available in all, said Rutte, adding it will be too early to say whether all of them will be donated to Kyiv, reported Reuters.
The pledge to deliver F-16s was also confirmed by the Danish foreign ministry in a statement on Sunday.
Hailing it as a "historic" decision, Zelenskyy called the deal a “breakthrough agreement” but also said that the discussion over exact number of aircraft will be discussed “a little later.”
The Ukrainian President arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday and was slated to visit Denmark later in the day.
Zelenskyy was hopeful that the planes would strengthen Ukraine’s air defences and help its counter-offensive. "Aircraft can speed up this process," he said.
"We are speaking about air defence, because we have the winter ahead of us and we understand more than anyone else in the world what winter without electricity is like."
The Dutch PM made it clear that the fighter jets will not be transferred right away, as it will take some time to properly train Ukrainian pilots and to prepare the needed infrastructure for the use of the planes, the report added.
"The military training will start in the very near future, and then it will take of course some time for the planes to get operational with well-trained pilots, but we'll do everything to make it happen as soon as possible," Rutte said