Ukraine agrees with Sweden on transfer of Gripen fighter jets - Zhovkva
Ukraine and Sweden are negotiating to provide Kyiv with Saab JAS-39 Gripen fighter jets.
Deputy Head of the President's Office Ihor Zhovkva said this in an interview with the Ukrainian service of the Voice of America, Censor.NET reports.
According to Zhovkva, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy constantly raises this topic with the Swedish leadership. The representative of the President's Office said that talks about the transfer of Gripen aircraft to Ukraine took place before Sweden joined NATO.
"For obvious reasons, they were not ready to make any promises then, as they had finalised their membership in the Alliance. Now the country is in NATO, and my president is talking to the Swedish prime minister again, and our defence ministry is talking to the relevant Swedish authorities. These fighters are as good as F-16s and we are moving in this direction," Zhovkva said.
Earlier, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said that Sweden did not supply Ukraine with fighter jets because Ukraine concluded that it would be too difficult to introduce two fighter jet systems - F-16 and Gripen - at the same time.
However, he stressed that Sweden is open to providing Gripen fighter jets in the future.
