Zelenskyy said that if the Russian invasion is successful, other parts of Europe will be endangered by the Kremlin’s military aggression.
“All of Russia’s neighbors are under threat if Ukraine does not prevail,” he said in a speech in Copenhagen.
Zelenskyy describes Ukraine as upholding Western values of freedom and democracy against tyranny, and argues that Ukraine needs to be properly provisioned to fend off Russia’s far greater force.
Ukraine has been pressuring its Western allies for months to provide it with F-16 fighters. Its military still uses Soviet-era fighter jets and its counteroffensive against Russian positions is proceeding without air support, something analysts see as a serious handicap.
Zelenskyy indicated on Telegram that Ukraine would receive 42 aircraft. Denmark promised 19 F-16s, to be delivered around the end of the year, when four to six months of pilot training is complete.
However, getting Ukrainian squadrons ready for combat could take much longer. US Air Force General James Hacker, commander of US forces in Europe and Africa, said last week that he did not expect the F-16s to be a turning point for Ukraine. Getting squadrons of F-16s ready for battle could take “four or five years,” he noted.
Other issues that were not yet clear included what kind of weapons the F-16s would carry and how the aircraft would be maintained in Ukraine.
The United States last week announced its green light for the Netherlands and Denmark to deliver the F-16s. Other countries need your permission to donate the planes because the planes are made in the United States.
Zelenskyy visited the Netherlands on Sunday and inspected two gray F-16s parked in a hangar at a Dutch base in the southern city of Eindhoven together with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Rutte gave no timetable for delivery of the planes, saying it depended on when the Ukrainian equipment and infrastructure would be ready.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
