F-16 fighters will be delivered to Ukraine by summer, delay in delivery due to technical reasons only - Danish Prime Minister Frederiksen
Denmark will supply F-16 fighters to Ukraine by the summer of this year. The delay is caused solely by technical reasons.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said this in Lviv at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after signing a bilateral security agreement, Censor.NET reports with reference to Ukrinform.
"We are all very pleased that Denmark is going to provide these fighters in cooperation with the Netherlands, Belgium and the United States. This is a very powerful weapon... I hope that we will be able to see F-16s in the airspace of Ukraine in the near future, before the summer," she said.
The Danish prime minister explained the delay in the transfer of the fighter jets to Ukraine solely by technical issues that take time to resolve.
"The only reason why we are delaying the transfer of F-16s to Ukraine is simply a technical reason, a technical point. Because you need a serious infrastructure to maintain these fighters, and training for the F-16 is much longer and more extensive than for any other weapon system," Frederiksen said.
She added that the training of Ukrainian pilots began in August, and it is going "very quickly and very well."
