According to the report, Ukraine will soon receive a new batch of F-16s from Denmark.
Bloomberg reported Wednesday citing sources that the first batch of NATO-supplied F-16 fighter jets had arrived in Ukraine. The Telegraph newspaper reported that the F-16s supplied to Ukraine had made their first flights in an "air defense" capacity.
Former Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said in the last days of the previous cabinet that the country's authorities had issued permission to export 24 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, the first batch of which would be delivered soon. Russian Ambassador to the Netherlands Vladimir Tarabrin told Sputnik that Moscow views this decision as a deliberate move by The Hague to escalate the conflict and destabilize the situation.
New Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington last week that F-16 fighters should appear in Ukrainian airspace soon.
Russian Defense Ministry earlier said that Russian army will start hunting down F-16s as soon as they begin arriving and that Russian defense systems will get rid of the first batch of these jets in several weeks.
Vladimir Putin had a conversation with Russian military pilots in March and stressed that F-16 would not change the game for Kiev.
“If they supply F-16s... I think, and you understand this better than anyone else..., this will not change the situation on the battlefield,” Putin said.