Ukraine’s air force has said it needs 128 western-supplied fighter jets to gain advantage in the air war against Russia, as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked Denmark for pledging to supply his country with 19 US-made F-16s over the next two years.
Ukraine has been frustrated with the pace at which western allies have followed up on promises to train its pilots to fly F-16s, as it struggles to break through minefields and Russian lines in occupied territory and faces a concerted bid by Moscow’s forces to retake the city of Kupiansk in the eastern Kharkiv region, which was liberated last September.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said 128 “is the number we have in mind. Clearly, the war might make us revise this, but we really need more than 100 planes to spread around different air bases, so they can respond to different threats and strike different targets, including aircraft, ground targets and the enemy’s rear, in particular”.
“We won’t win straight away, of course, but F-16s can change the course of events and give us what we need above all today: air superiority in the occupied territories,” he told Ukrainian television, claiming that “this very second there are eight or nine Russian fighter jets in the occupied territories launching guided bombs and missiles”.
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“Air superiority is the key to success on the ground, we should all understand that,” Col Ihnat added, as Kyiv’s troops continued to make only slow progress in southeastern areas of Ukraine where Russia’s occupation forces have been building defences and laying minefields for more than a year, and in the face of Russian attack jets and helicopters.
Denmark says it aims to provide six F-16s to Ukraine around New Year, eight more next year and a further five in 2025. The Netherlands has also pledged to deliver F-16s to Kyiv and has 42 available, but it is not clear if all of them will be transferred.
“Today I am here with my wife, with my team … to personally thank all of you for helping us in our fight, our difficult fight for freedom,” Mr Zelenskiy told members of the Danish parliament on a visit to Copenhagen on Monday.
“All of Russia’s neighbours are under threat if Ukraine does not prevail. International law will not be resuscitated. Democracies of the world – each of them can become a target either for missiles, or for mercenaries, or for destabilisation… But Ukraine will prevail,” he added, before flying to Athens to meet Balkan leaders and senior European Union officials.
Denmark said the F-16s would only be for use over Ukrainian territory, but Russia’s ambassador to Copenhagen, Vladimir Barbin, denounced the move.
“The fact that Denmark has now decided to donate 19 F-16 aircraft to Ukraine leads to an escalation of the conflict,” he said. “By hiding behind a premise that Ukraine itself must determine the conditions for peace, Denmark seeks with its actions and words to leave Ukraine with no other choice but to continue the military confrontation with Russia.”
Ukraine’s armed forces said on Monday they had reclaimed another three square kilometres of territory around the occupied eastern city of Bakhmut in the past week, but acknowledged heavy and “difficult” fighting near Kupiansk, about 150km to the north. Russia said its troops had taken the nearby village of Synkivka and were now on the “approaches” to Kupiansk, where Ukraine is evacuating residents.
