Old F-16s Arriving in Ukraine Are Weak Publicity Stunt

Ukraine has received the first 10 of the nearly 80 F-16 fighter jets a year after the Biden administration agreed to European allies’ decision to send them, the Economist reported Sunday. By the end of 2024 Ukraine will have 20 of the jets in operation, the report added.

Mark Sleboda, an international relations and security analyst, joined Sputnik Monday to discuss the arrival of the F-16s to Ukraine and what may be expected from their use.

“Zelensky is desperate for attention. He senses the world's attention shifting back to the Middle East, away from Ukraine. And he's such a prima donna that he can't have that. So he needs to remind everyone that he's gotten his hand, finally, on a handful of antiquated F-16s,” Sleboda said, adding that the Biden administration leaked the news to the US press because they want it “known”.

“[The Biden administration] wants it known that we're talking about six old European F-16s and we're talking about six barely trained Ukrainian pilots. And considering you need two pilots to fly one of these planes, that means that there's really not even a need for three planes, even assuming they're not all in the air at the same time,” the analyst said.

“But the reports are that right now they're simply being used for the pilots to practice getting in and taking off and flying around at this point. That seems to be all they're capable of at least at the moment,” Sleboda said.

Retired US Army Europe Commanding General Ben Hodges has expressed frustration about the delay in getting the jets to Ukraine, noting that one of the main reasons for the delay is a lack of training slots for Ukrainian pilots. Typically pilots are trained for three years on how to fly F-16s, but Kiev’s pilots have only received nine months of training.

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“But we know from sources from the US chairman of the joint chiefs and secretary of defense and from the Kiev regime's top general, we know that these are not game changing. They're not going to change anything on the battlefield,” Sleboda explained.

“These are old aircraft. They're heavily outnumbered by Russia's far more advanced aircraft and completely outclassed by Russia's air defense. They're going to be hiding in West Ukraine for the most part and used to assist the Kiev regime in collapsing Western-provided air defense systems.”

The Netherlands and Denmark were among the first countries to agree to supply F-16s to Ukraine. The White House later confirmed that Kiev would receive the US-made jets from third countries once Ukrainian pilots complete the training to fly them, Sputnik reported. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who spoke to Russian military pilots in March, stressed that the delivery of F-16s would not change the situation in Kiev.

“...Certainly Russia will be doing everything they can to hunt them down. They are regularly launching missiles at airfields in west Ukraine including with cluster munitions which would certainly destroy these planes or the airfields that they fly off of, which is critical for an F-16 which requires a pristine runway.”

“And, there are extremely high bounties for Russian military forces, for those who bring down F-16s, funded in large part by Russian companies,” the analyst said. “So send them, please.”

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'Desperate for Attention': Old F-16s Arriving in Ukraine Are Weak Publicity Stunt