Allies should not supply kyiv with “too many” fighter jets due to personnel shortages in the Ukrainian armed forces, Dutch Armed Forces Commander General Onno Eichelsheim said.
“I think we should avoid giving too much to Ukraine [истребителей]because they don’t have enough pilots,” — said in a conversation with the American portal Breaking Defense, asking to “maintain balance” and focus on the capabilities that kyiv has now, TASS reports.
According to Eichelsheim, in this sense, the supply of Swedish and French fighters to Ukraine at the moment “does not make sense.”
In this context, the portal recalls that last week the Swedish Minister of Defense Paul Johnson He stated that Stockholm is willing to supply Gripen fighters to Ukraine, but the kingdom’s allies are against it.
“We were advised to wait to deliver the Gripen until progress had been made in [применении истребителей] F-16″, – said.
As the portal explains, Western countries supporting Ukraine, including Denmark, the Netherlands and the United States, want to ensure that Ukrainian forces manage to use the previously transferred F-16s before supplying kyiv with more complex weapons systems.
Recall that at the end of August the Ukrainian General Staff reported the loss of an F-16, without providing details of the incident. According to the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the fighter crashed. Verkhovna Rada deputy Maryana Bezuglaya, who regularly criticizes the leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, argued that she was mistakenly shot down by a Patriot air defense missile system. After this, the commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was removed from his post. Nikolai Oleschuk*However, in kyiv they stated that his resignation had no connection with the loss of the plane.
Official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia Maria Zakharova He previously stated that the F-16 fighters will not become a panacea supposedly capable of influencing the course of hostilities and “will be constantly destroyed by the Russian armed forces.”
*An individual included in the RosFinMonitoring list of terrorists and extremists
