The Netherlands named the terms of sending F-16 to Romania for the training of Ukrainian pilots

Kaisa Ollongren noted that 12 to 18 planes will go to Romania.

The Dutch F-16s , on which Ukrainian pilots will learn to fly, will go to a new training center in Romania within a few weeks. Soon they will be able to make their first training flight.

According to the Minister of Defense of the Netherlands, Kaisa Ollongren, the creation of a training center in Romania, one of Ukraine’s neighboring countries, is going well.

“Everything is going very well,” the NL Times quoted the minister as saying after a meeting with colleagues at the NATO headquarters in Brussels. “We hope to deliver 12 to 18 aircraft to Romania within a few weeks so that the center can begin operations.”

The head of the defense department noted that Amsterdam is still working on additional assistance for Ukrainian air defense forces.

“Air defense will be crucial to survive the coming winter,” President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi told her and other defense ministers. The Netherlands “will be able to do even more in the coming months,” Ollongren said.

At the same time, she could not say when the Netherlands will hand over the first fighter jets to Ukraine. In principle, the country will receive 24 fighters that can be used in the fight against Russia. The Netherlands has 42 such fighters. The rest will be used for pilot training.

“The USA, currently the largest and most influential country in NATO, is taking over the work of the Netherlands and Denmark. The USA will lead the “military-air coalition”, which wants to provide Ukraine with a modern and strong air force. The Netherlands and Denmark, the initiators of the previous “coalition of fighters “, will continue to provide assistance at the forefront. This is “logical”, – said the head of the Ministry of Defense of the Netherlands.

(C)UNIAN 2023