On December 23, the team of the American Institute for the Study of War announced a forecast that Ukraine may receive the first F-16 fighter jets by the end of 2023. Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat
already denied this information.
Ukraine will not receive the first F-16s in 2023
According to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, his country is preparing the first 18 fighter jets for delivery to Ukraine.
Yuriy Ignat notes that this will not happen this year, as we have not even seen the completion of pilot training yet.
Everything is going according to plan, as stipulated by the agreements with partners, a coalition of countries that are helping us transition to a new type of aircraft for us – the F-16, which will be the main aircraft in the service of our Air Force, the spokesman explained.
Which F-16 will be provided to Ukraine
Yuriy Ignat draws attention to the fact that those F-16s, which are in service with partners and are planned to be transferred to Ukraine, have air-to-air missiles.
They will enable our pilots to destroy any type of air targets of the Russian army.
The Air Force hopes that the F-16s will be able to powerfully oppose Russian aviation in one direction or another.
In the future, if Ukrainian pilots and the entire airfield infrastructure, engineers, and ground personnel are ready to fully exploit this type of aircraft, then it will be possible to negotiate more modern models - those that are already received by the partners that transfer F-16s to Ukraine.
According to Yuri Ignat, any number of fighters will help the Armed Forces on the battlefield.
