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Ukraine receives another batch of F-16 fighter jets from the Netherlands

Earlier on Thursday, French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu confirmed that the first Mirage 2000s had been delivered to Ukraine

MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS/. Kiev has received another batch of F-16 fighter jets from Amsterdam, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced.

"Ukraine’s Air Force has received a long-awaited reinforcement: the first French Mirage 2000 and F-16 fighter jets from the Kingdom of the Netherlands," Umerov stated in an official post on the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Telegram channel. He expressed gratitude to the governments of France and the Netherlands for the delivery of the aircraft, though he did not specify the number of planes received.

Earlier on Thursday, French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu confirmed that the first Mirage 2000s had been delivered to Ukraine.

On August 1 of last year, The Times reported that Ukraine had received six F-16 fighter jets from the Netherlands. In October, the Dutch Defense Ministry officially confirmed the delivery of the first F-16 fighters to Kiev, but the exact number of aircraft delivered remained unspecified. The Netherlands has pledged to send a total of 24 aircraft to Ukraine. However, in November 2024, General Onno Eichelsheim, the commander of the Dutch Armed Forces, cautioned that allies should refrain from supplying Kiev with "too many" fighter jets due to manpower shortages in the Ukrainian armed forces.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova remarked earlier that foreign fighter jets would not serve as a panacea capable of influencing the course of combat operations and would be "consistently destroyed by the Russian armed forces.".