By KYIV. Nov 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said that he can not give a specific date when modern F-16 fighters will arrive in Ukraine, but noted that there is not a single system that by itself will radically change the situation on the battlefield.
“I welcome of course the decision by NATO Allies, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway to deliver F-16’s. I welcome the fact that training of F-16 pilots have already started and just a few weeks ago, a centre for training pilots also [was] established in Romania. I’m not able to give you an exact date, but I hope the delivery can start as soon as possible. The planes are there. But what needs to be done is to train the pilots and that’s ongoing,” Stoltenberg said at a press conference in Brussels following a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.
As the NATO Secretary General noted, the F-16 will make a difference, in particular strengthening Ukraine’s ability to inflict losses on Russian forces, and helping to further strengthen Ukrainian air defense.
“At the same time, I think we need to now realise that there is not a silver bullet, not a single system that by itself will change fundamentally the situation on the battlefield. This is a question of many different capabilities are working together at the same time that will push the Russians back. We have to be prepared for a long and hard fight,” Stoltenberg said.
