Ukraine-Russia war latest: Netherlands and Denmark to give dozens of F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv

Ukraine is set to receive more F-16 fighter jets from the Netherlands and Denmark in a sign of “unwavering support” once the pilot training of Ukrainian troops is completed, their respective officials announced. leader

Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would get 42 jets, but the Netherlands and Denmark, in a joint statement announcing the deliveries, did not specify the numbers.

Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen said 19 jets would “hopefully” be sent to Kyiv, with six arriving in the new year, eight more next year and the remaining five to be sent in 2025 as she requested the Ukraine “please take this donation. as a sign of Denmark’s unwavering support for your country’s struggle for independence”.

Danish defense minister Jakob Ellemann-Jensen said that Denmark’s support for Ukraine is unwavering and with the donation of F-16s, the country is now in the lead.

“It makes me proud that Denmark, together with the Netherlands, will donate F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine to fight for freedom against Russia and its senseless aggression,” he said in a statement.

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte said the Netherlands had 42 of the jets, but said the rest were needed for training purposes.

The timeline for its delivery to Kyiv will depend on when Ukraine’s crew and infrastructure are ready for the powerful US-made jets.

Mr Zelensky welcomed the “historic” announcement and praised Mr Rutte for making the Netherlands the first country to offer the planes. The announcement came minutes after the two leaders inspected two gray F-16 jets parked in a hangar at the Dutch base in the southern city of Eindhoven.

Two Ukrainian drones reportedly crashed on Monday in the Moscow region, briefly disrupting flights at two of the capital’s airports, according to Russian officials.

Russia’s defense ministry said it jammed a Ukrainian drone in the Ruzsky district west of the capital and later destroyed another in the nearby Istrinsky district.

Arrivals and departures from Moscow’s Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports were temporarily halted but later restarted.

Ukraine’s drone attacks on border regions and the Russian capital have become increasingly common in recent months, with repeated strikes in Moscow’s financial district.

Ukraine usually does not comment on who is behind the attacks on Russian territory, although public officials have expressed their satisfaction.

Russia is expanding and reorganizing its military structures to cope with its losses in key fighting hotspots, according to the UK’s MoD.

“A new formation is very likely – the 18th Combined Arms Army (18 CAA). The formation is likely to be a merger and increase of other units currently operating in Kherson Oblast, including the 22nd Army Corps, the force that often consists of the Russian garrison in occupied Crimea,” the ministry said in its latest intelligence update.

It added that the 18 CAA “is likely to comprise the majority of mobilized personnel and will focus on security defense operations in the south of Ukraine”.

Russia is likely to aim to free up more experienced units to fight on key axes, the MoD said.

“There is a realistic possibility that this led to the recent deployment of air forces from Kherson to the heavily contested sector of Orikhiv,” it added.

Moscow’s Domodedovo airport banned arrivals and departures shortly after a Ukrainian drone jammed and crashed in the capital region, Russian news agencies said.

The move was made “to ensure additional flight safety measures”, TASS and RIA said, citing the airport’s press service.

Arrivals and departures from Moscow’s Vnukovo airport were suspended in the morning.

A Ukrainian drone was jammed in the Moscow region causing it to crash, Russia’s defense ministry said today.

There were no casualties, the ministry added. Officials suspended arrivals and departures from Moscow’s Vnukovo airport shortly after, local news agencies reported.

On Saturday, Ukrainian defense minister Oleksiy Reznikov announced that F-16 training for Ukrainian pilots had begun, but added that it would take at least six months and possibly longer to train the engineers and mechanics.

After providing a major boost for Kyiv by announcing the planned delivery of dozens of F-16s, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said more than 70 Ukrainian military officials had arrived in Denmark for the training. Officials from a coalition of 11 countries said the training would take place in Denmark and Romania.

The Netherlands and Denmark led a month-long push to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s and eventually deliver the jets to help counter air strikes against Russia, whose forces invaded Ukraine in February last year.

While Ukraine said it expected several dozen pilots to be trained, it remained unclear how many pilots had arrived in Denmark. The Netherlands and Denmark have F-16s available for donation as their armed forces transition to newer F-35 fighters.

Russia reported an “abnormal condition” on Saturday in the space-25 lunar rover, which was launched earlier this month.

The country’s space agency, Roscosmos, said the spacecraft ran into unspecified trouble while trying to enter a pre-landing orbit, and that its specialists were analyzing the situation.

“During the operation, an abnormal situation occurred in the automatic station, which did not allow the maneuver to be carried out with the set parameters,” Roscosmos said in a Telegram post.

Roscosmos has not determined whether the incident will prevent Luna-25 from landing.

Ukrainian soldiers serving on the frontline described some of the desperate measures used by Russia.

A deputy battalion commander of the 129th Territorial Defense Brigade told The New York Times: “The Russians tried to attack, tried to squeeze us, to surround us but everything happened as we thought.

“They buried many of their own men.”

Russia is said to have fired rockets into the battlefield indiscriminately, killing many of its own soldiers.

As President Joe Biden likes to remind anyone who will listen, “This is not your grandfather’s Republican Party”.

John McCain, the late Arizona Senator and 2008 GOP presidential candidate, has been sounding the alarm about Russia for years, making him one of President Vladimir Putin’s “biggest antagonists,” the Republic of Arizona Noticed in February 2022, days after the Russian invasion began.

During the last year of his presidency in 2008, George W Bush said he “strongly supports” NATO membership of Ukraine and Georgia. Last year, in a viral gaffe, he misspoke of Iraq when he meant to call the war in Ukraine “unjustified and brutal”.

His younger brother, Jeb Bush, a former Governor of Florida, went to Europe in 2015 before announcing his presidential campaign.

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