Belgium to transfer 30 F-16 fighters to Ukraine, with first ones coming already this year
Belgium will transfer 30 of its F-16 fighters to Ukraine by 2028. The first planes should be delivered by the end of this year, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium, Hadja Lahbib, in a comment to RTL.
According to her, this commitment will be formalized in an agreement that will be signed on May 28 in Brussels during the visit of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Belgium joined the "F-16 coalition" last year, along with the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway, to provide Kyiv with a series of fighter-bombers to counter Russian offensives.
Initially, Belgium was only engaged in training, technical and logistical support. But last fall, the government also promised to provide a certain number of aircraft, still not specifying how many. In return, Belgium will receive American F-35s.
F-16 for Ukraine
Last year in May, US President Joe Biden approved plans to train Ukrainian pilots on American F-16 fighter jets. The media reported that the exercise would take place in Europe, but US personnel would participate in the exercises with allies and partners in Europe. Training can take several months.
The Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium have announced that they will hand over aircraft to Ukraine, in particular, for exercises to be held in Denmark and Romania. Norway may also supply fighters. The rest of the countries have confirmed their readiness to join the training of Ukrainian pilots for the F-16s.
In November, a pilot training center for F-16 fighter jets was inaugurated in the Romanian city of Fetești, where Ukrainian pilots were to be trained, in particular. Among the instructors at this base there may be not only representatives of Romania, the Netherlands and the United States, but also military pilots from other NATO member countries.