The Minister of Defense of the Netherlands, Ruben Brekelmans, announced that the F-16 fighter jets from the Netherlands will be in Ukraine "in the near future".
In a commentary to Ukrinform, Ruben Brekelmans mentioned that the Netherlands is actively striving to expedite the process.
“I can say that the F-16s are coming soon and that we are working hard to make it happen as soon as possible. But I won't share any details. The reason is not that I don't want to inform the public because I would like to inform everyone as much as possible. But we know that the F-16 is also a target for Russia, and if we share the details, the exact date and time, that would be very valuable information for the Russian regime. And we don't want to make them more informed than they are. So this is something I will not share," he said.
Brekelmans also didn’t share the amount fighter jets that will be delivered, additionally noting that Ukrainian pilots learn very quickly.
"Also, I will not name their exact number, because this is also valuable information for Russia. I can say that what Ukrainian pilots are doing now is really amazing. It usually takes Dutch pilots many years, sometimes even more than five years, to learn the F-16, to learn the system, which is quite complex. Ukrainian pilots now do it in a year and a half. So this is really something significant," he said.
