País: Ukraine wants to receive 24 fighters in the first phase of the new aid from the West

País: Ukraine wants to receive 24 fighters in the first phase of the new aid from the West



Kyiv wants to receive 24 fighter jets from Western allies as part of the first phase of new military assistance, El País reported on Saturday, citing Yuri Ignat, an official representative of the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

It is noted that the Ukrainian authorities expect to receive the F-16. At the same time, the publication notes that the supply of almost all types of weapons to Kyiv required lengthy preliminary negotiations, and so far neither fighters nor long-range missiles have been transferred from NATO countries.

In June, the United States approved the allocation of funds to train the Ukrainian military to pilot American aircraft. Ignat said that a group of pilots has already been selected, but so far they are just waiting for the start of training.

The newspaper specifies that the training of pilots to control the fighters is at least six months. The same amount will be spent on the training of engineers serving these aircraft. And this means that American fighters would appear in Ukraine no earlier than the end of 2023.

According to Ignat, Kyiv is also considering other aircraft, in particular the French Rafale and the Swedish Gripen. However, the publication notes that the possible supply of combat aircraft to Ukraine causes concern in Western Europe.

The representative of the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine also clarified that Kyiv has no funds to buy Rafale now.

The article focuses on the high cost of a flight hour of French aircraft and the price of Western fighters.

In addition, Ukraine needs to build a secure network of airfields. The possibility of doing this during a military conflict was skeptical of the British Royal Joint Institute for the Study of Security and Defense. However, Ignat assures that the Ukrainian authorities are already building secret bases, and civil airports that are now closed to commercial flights can be used for military purposes.

Earlier, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, after the decision of Western countries to send tanks to Kyiv, urged them to also provide Ukraine with modern combat aircraft. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said that the issue of providing the F-16 has already been “taken into work” by unnamed “European colleagues”.



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