UKRAINE-RUSSIA-NETHERLANDS – TELAM Agency
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte reiterated today that his government has not yet made a firm decision on the possible supply of F-16 fighter jets to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Rutte challenged at a press conference that, first of all, the United States should give its go-ahead for countries with F-16s to send them to third parties, according to the US network CNN.
However, the Dutch prime minister stressed that the Netherlands, along with Belgium and the United Kingdom, are the main driving countries when it comes to developing training programs for Ukrainian pilots in the management of fighters, the Europa Press news agency reported.
In this way, Rutte differentiated training programs for the Ukrainian military from directly supplying these Western fighter jets to kyiv.
The Ukrainian authorities, including President Volodimir Zelenski, have been insisting for weeks on the importance of allied countries supplying their Army with combat planes so that they can also confront Russia from the air.
While most countries seem unwilling to send fighters, they have instead been open to training Ukrainian pilots to fly Western fighter jets. And according to this logic, the one that opened the way, followed by others, was the United States.
Despite everything, Ukraine does have the full support of Poland and Slovakia, which sent their Soviet-made MiG-29 fighters. kyiv appreciated the efforts of Warsaw and Bratislava, but prefers to have more modern and powerful F-16s.
Source: Ambito
