First F-16 fighter jets arrive in Ukraine, officials say

BERLIN – Ukraine has received its first collection of F-16 combat jets, Lithuania’s foreign minister and several officials confirmed on Wednesday.

The jets have been long-anticipated, with discussions about providing the fighters to Kyiv dating back to the early days of the February 2022 Russian invasion of its smaller neighbor.

“F-16s in Ukraine. Another impossible thing turned out to be totally possible,” Vilnius’ Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis wrote on X.

The Associated Press and Reuters cited unnamed U.S. and Ukrainian officials who confirmed the delivery of the first jets. Publicly, Ukraine and its supporters are keeping tight-lipped; a top advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would neither confirm nor deny that Ukraine has received F-16s, NPR reported on Thursday.

Ukraine is to receive six of the aircraft this summer and up to 20 by the end of the year, Bloomberg reported in July.

U.S. President Joe Biden gave the go-ahead in August 2023 for F-16s to be sent to Ukraine, though the U.S. will not be providing any fighter jets directly. Ukrainian pilots and maintenance crews have been training on the warplanes in Western countries for months. The White House said last month that “Ukraine will be flying operational F-16s this summer.”

The Netherlands and Denmark, both NATO members, have been the driving force behind the push to get F-16s to Ukraine. Norway and Belgium have also promised to donate fighters. Between them, the four countries have pledged 79 of the fourth-generation multirole fighter jets.

It is unclear whether the arrival of F-16s in Ukraine will amount to a game changer, but defense officials hope they will assist Ukraine in challenging Russia’s air supremacy, particularly over the Black Sea.

Although the first F-16s took to the skies half a century ago, reportedly around 2,000 of the aircraft are still in use by air forces — particularly in U.S.-aligned countries — around the globe.

Well over 4,000 F-16s have been sold, with over 25 countries operating them today. They were used to enforce no-fly zones in Iraq during the Gulf War and were heavily employed in the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s. More recently, the jets have seen combat over Afghanistan, Libya and Syria.