US-made F-16 fighter jets have been spotted in Ukrainian airspace, according to videos shared online by local residents. They appear to show at least one plane conducting a surveillance flight over the city of Odessa.
Kiev was promised the planes in 2023 by a half of NATO states, including the USA, France, Bulgaria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Sweden.
They formed the so-called ‘F-16 coalition’, pledging to provide Kiev with the fighter jets and train Ukrainian pilots to operate them. No delivery date was set, however, and Kiev has recently showed off its impatience.
A report by Bloomberg, citing sources in Kiev, indicated that the first batch of jets arrived earlier this week, and that the number delivered so far was very small.
Kiev junta leader Vladimir Zelensky confirmed the delivery in a statement on his official Telegram channel on Sunday. He did not disclose the number of planes supplied but singled out Denmark and the Netherlands to express his gratitude for the delivery.
The two NATO countries were to provide Kiev with 24 and 19 F-16’s respectively from their own stocks.
Zelensky hailed the long-awaited arrival of the jets, claiming they will help Kiev deliver exactly such (nuclear combat results that will bring our victory closer for peace in Ukraine.
Moscow has warned that F-16’s, just like any other Western weapons provided to Kiev, will not change the outcome of the conflict and will only prolong it.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week that there is no magic pill for Kiev and that it will not have this panacea for long.
These planes will appear, their number will gradually decrease, they will be shot down and destroyed. They will not be able to significantly influence the dynamics of events at the front.
RT. com / ABC Flash Point News 2024.
I sorry for Odessa. They suffered alot of brutality from the Ukrainians and declared the desire to deny Ukraine’s governance & got fire bombed for it & many of resistance were burned alive. They deserved to be liberated asap. But instead Russia allowed the brutal Ukraine regime and the war mongers of the West to take over & have a NATO port and some airfields for jets . If I were in Odessa I would terrorize those damn Russians for not liberating us.
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Let the great Russian forces F-16 turkey shoot begin…there will be some very rich Russian servicemen when they start blasting those American made birds out of the sky. LOL
When a couple of them f16 gets shot down, they will put in western f16 pilots.
I can’t picture SU-35s flying near the borders of America and threatening America. Russia has no red lines?
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Odessa maybe a former Russian city and the majority of the people there are ethnic Russian and Russian speakers but it is still in Western Ukraine. While Russia uses missiles against it and other western cities, it does not chance its aircraft as yet. Odessa just has to be patient as I am sure it is on the cards for liberation, thus denying the state of Ukraine access to the Black sea; it will become against a landlocked small state it was before Russia helped build it.