The Dutch Defense Minister, Kajsa Ollongren, has calculated this Friday that the military training of the first Ukrainian pilots in Denmark to fly F-16s will take at least “about six or eight months”, so she expects the delivery of the fighters promised to Ukraine will be made “within the next year”.

The acting minister, who returned to her country last Wednesday after a visit to Kiev where she discussed the delivery of the F-16s with the government of Volodimir Zelenski, explained that “the Ukrainians have surprised positively so far”, they are “super motivated” and are “technically good”.

And these circumstances, he adds, allow “to be so optimistic and to think that they will be successful in those six or eight months of training”, despite the fact that it normally takes more time to train pilots.

In this way, this means that the first batch of Ukrainian pilots, who have already started their training in Denmark, will be ready in February next year at the earliest.

As she explained when she was a guest on the Dutch television program Op1, the first fighters promised by the Netherlands are expected to arrive in Ukraine “over the next year”, since, in addition to pilot training, it is necessary to establish the necessary infrastructure for the F-16s in Ukraine, have spare parts and adequate weapons for these fighters, and be prepared for the maintenance of combat aircraft. Otherwise, he has noted, there is “no point” in simply supplying F-16s to Ukraine.

“As Many As Possible”

Ollongren is still unclear on how many F16s the Netherlands will supply to Ukraine, but has assured that the Dutch government wants to “supply as many as possible” of the 42 fighters it has.

“We still have to put that puzzle together,” said the minister, who explained that Defense has 24 of them in use and needs several for training.

The Danish government has confirmed for the moment the donation of 19 F-16 fighters to Ukraine.

Both Denmark and the Netherlands are training the Ukrainian pilots together before the delivery of these fighters.

Thus, last Sunday, Zelensky landed by surprise in the Netherlands to take what he called “the most important agreement” reached during the war: the supply of F-16 fighters “to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses.”

He also warned that kyiv “is not going to give up” and that it will deploy these planes “to keep Russian terrorists away from cities and towns” in Ukraine.