Denmark Repeats Pledge to Send F-16 Jets to Ukraine

(Dreamstime)

Ukraine will receive F-16 fighter jets from Denmark this summer, according to the Danish ambassador.

Ambassador Ole Egberg Mikkelsen said Denmark’s entire fleet of aging F-16s was being decommissioned, and jets would be sent to Ukraine and Argentina.

“Don’t worry. There will definitely be aircraft for Ukraine,” Mikkelsen said Sunday in an interview with Ukrainian news outlet Mi-Ukraina, Yahoo! News reported. “This is our entire F-16 fleet, which is now being decommissioned because we are receiving a new generation of F-35s.”

In a report on the sale of the fighter jets to Argentina, Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said the nearly 40-year-old F-16s “have been thoroughly maintained and technologically updated” and that the receiving country will “become part of the global F-16 family.”

The Danish Defense Ministry told Newsweek in January that Denmark’s government planned to donate 19 F-16 fighter aircraft to Ukraine. Poulsen repeated the intent in February.

Denmark’s F-16s will bolster a growing fleet of fighter jets already promised to Ukraine by its key allies. The Netherlands, Norway, and Belgium last year pledged to send jets to Ukraine, Newsweek reported.

A Greek news outlet reported this month that Athens likely will approve the transfer of 32 F-16C/D fighter jets to Ukraine, Breaking Defense reported.

The Institute for the Study of War reported Friday that “Ukrainian officials have highlighted promised F-16 fighter aircraft as a crucial element of a combined air defense system that can intercept more Russian missile and drone strikes and constrain Russian tactical aviation operations.”

However, an anonymous Ukrainian senior military officer told Politico that “F-16s were needed in 2023; they won’t be right for 2024” because Russia has improved its targeting of the jets.

Newsweek reported that, according to experts, the promised number of F-16s may be too small to make a strategic difference across the entire Ukraine-Russia front line.

“A single system can’t change the situation on the battlefield,” NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told German newspaper Bild this month. “This isn’t a silver bullet that could change the course of the war.”

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday will take up a foreign aid package of four bills passed by the House, with one providing $61 billion for Ukraine.

Argentina’s defense minister last week signed a deal worth about $300 million to buy 24 of Denmark’s aging F-16 fighter jets.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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