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Ukrainian Air Force recognizes F-16s will yield limited effect

According to the speaker for the Ukrainian Air Force command Yury Ignat, "Russia will react to this accordingly"

MOSCOW, February 21. /TASS/. Ukraine will receive only a limited number of F-16 fighter jets, moreover, not the newest modifications, and there will be few pilots capable of flying them, the speaker for the Ukrainian Air Force command, Yury Ignat, has said.

He noted that "everyone is expecting that as soon as the airplanes are available, victory will follow."

"You should understand that first only a small group of pilots will arrive. Of course, Russia will react to this accordingly," he said in an interview with Ukrinform. "The process of training pilots and increasing their number in Ukraine will be gradual."

"We will not be given 40, 70 or 120 airplanes at once. By the way, we are not to be given the newest modifications," Ignat added.

The Netherlands, Denmark and several other Western countries are now actively involved in training Ukrainian pilots and plan to hand over to Ukraine a certain number of F-16 fighter jets. The Netherlands has 42 aircraft at its disposal, which have been replaced by next generation F-35s. Previously, Dutch officials said that they were ready to transfer up to 24 fighter jets to Ukraine, while the remaining 18 would be used for training pilots.

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