Zelenskyy heads north for possible Swedish arms deal

MILAN — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Sweden on Wednesday to discuss a “defense export,” according to the Swedish government, widely expected to be related to a potential deal involving Gripen fighter jets.

Zelenskyy met with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Oct. 22 in Linköping, home to the defense aerospace company Saab, which manufactures the aircraft.

“A strong and capable Ukraine is a key priority for Sweden, and we will continue to make sure it can fight back against Russia’s aggression,” Kristersson wrote on his X social media platform.

Stockholm has been touting the possibility of sending the Gripen to Ukraine for over a year. At the Singapore Air Show in February 2024, Saab officials confirmed to Defense News that Ukrainian pilots had successfully tested the jets in the fall of 2023.

At the time, the Swedish government emphasized that any decision regarding the transfer of the Gripen JAS39 was contingent on Ukraine’s accession to NATO. That has turned out to be a prickly question, in part delayed by Hungary, which did not ratify the protocol for the war-torn country’s accession.

“We are fully aligned with what has been put forward by the Swedish government on this matter — we also continue to work to support and work with our Hungarian partners in the best way we can,” Mikael Franzén, chief marketing officer at Saab, told Defense News on the sidelines of the 2024 airshow.

“We expect that if such a decision was granted approval by the Swedish government, it would be a fairly rapid process to send the aircraft to Ukraine. ... We are moving in the right direction currently,” he added.

Twenty months later, no deal has been finalized and Ukraine is still not a member of the military alliance.

In terms of Western-provided jets, Ukraine currently relies on the U.S.-made F-16s and the French Mirage 2000 aircraft.

In July 2024, then-Swedish Foreign Affairs Minister Tobias Billström said Ukraine had postponed the Gripen option, at least until the F-16s were received and implemented into operations.

“Kyiv has concluded that simultaneously having both F16s and Gripens would be too much,” he said in an interview with Voice of America at the time. The country began flying the F-16s for operations the following month.

According to Jussi Halmetoja, a former Gripen pilot and air operations advisor for Saab, it takes on average between four to six months to train a pilot to use the Gripen JAS39 for limited operations, including air-to-air and beyond-visual range combat.

Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo was a Europe correspondent for Defense News. She covers a wide range of topics related to military procurement and international security, and specializes in reporting on the aviation sector. She is based in Milan, Italy.

米兰——据瑞典政府称，乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基周三访问瑞典，讨论“国防出口”事宜，外界普遍认为这与涉及鹰狮战斗机的潜在交易有关。

10月22日，泽连斯基在林雪平会见了瑞典首相乌尔夫·克里斯特松。林雪平是萨博国防航空航天公司（该型飞机的制造商）的所在地。

克里斯特松在他的社交媒体平台上写道：“一个强大而有能力的乌克兰是瑞典的首要任务，我们将继续确保它能够反击俄罗斯的侵略。”

一年多来，斯德哥尔摩一直在宣传向乌克兰出售“鹰狮”战斗机的可能性。在2024年2月的新加坡航展上，萨博公司官员向《防务新闻》证实，乌克兰飞行员已于2023年秋季成功测试了这些战机。

当时，瑞典政府强调，任何关于移交JAS-39“鹰狮”战斗机的决定都取决于乌克兰加入北约。事实证明，这是一个棘手的问题，部分原因是匈牙利没有批准乌克兰加入北约的议定书，导致这一进程被拖延。

萨博首席营销官米凯尔·弗兰岑在 2024 年航展期间告诉《防务新闻》：“我们完全赞同瑞典政府就此事提出的方案——我们也将继续尽我们所能支持和与匈牙利合作伙伴合作。”

“我们预计，如果瑞典政府批准这项决定，将飞机送往乌克兰的过程将会相当迅速……我们目前正朝着正确的方向前进，”他补充道。

20个月过去了，协议仍未最终达成，乌克兰仍然不是该军事联盟的成员。

就西方提供的喷气式飞机而言，乌克兰目前主要依靠美国制造的F-16和法国制造的幻影2000飞机。

2024 年 7 月，时任瑞典外交大臣托比亚斯·比尔斯特伦表示，乌克兰已经推迟了鹰狮战斗机的采购方案，至少要等到 F-16 战斗机交付并投入使用后才会实施。

“基辅方面认为，同时拥有F-16和鹰狮战斗机数量过多，”他当时在接受美国之音采访时表示。该国于次月开始使用F-16执行作战任务。

据前鹰狮战斗机飞行员、萨博公司空中作战顾问尤西·哈尔梅托亚称，训练一名飞行员使用鹰狮JAS39进行有限的作战行动（包括空对空作战和超视距作战）平均需要四到六个月的时间。

伊丽莎白·戈斯林-马洛曾任《防务新闻》欧洲通讯员。她的报道涵盖军事采购和国际安全等广泛领域，尤其擅长航空领域的报道。她常驻意大利米兰。