First F-16 fighter jets arrive in Ukraine, officials say

BERLIN – Ukraine has received its first collection of F-16 combat jets, Lithuania’s foreign minister and several officials confirmed on Wednesday.

The jets have been long-anticipated, with discussions about providing the fighters to Kyiv dating back to the early days of the February 2022 Russian invasion of its smaller neighbor.

“F-16s in Ukraine. Another impossible thing turned out to be totally possible,” Vilnius’ Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis wrote on X .

The Associated Press and Reuters cited unnamed U.S. and Ukrainian officials who confirmed the delivery of the first jets. Publicly, Ukraine and its supporters are keeping tight-lipped; a top advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would neither confirm nor deny that Ukraine has received F-16s, NPR reported on Thursday.

Ukraine is to receive six of the aircraft this summer and up to 20 by the end of the year, Bloomberg reported in July.

U.S. President Joe Biden gave the go-ahead in August 2023 for F-16s to be sent to Ukraine, though the U.S. will not be providing any fighter jets directly. Ukrainian pilots and maintenance crews have been training on the warplanes in Western countries for months. The White House said last month that “Ukraine will be flying operational F-16s this summer.”

The Netherlands and Denmark, both NATO members, have been the driving force behind the push to get F-16s to Ukraine. Norway and Belgium have also promised to donate fighters. Between them, the four countries have pledged 79 of the fourth-generation multirole fighter jets.

It is unclear whether the arrival of F-16s in Ukraine will amount to a game changer, but defense officials hope they will assist Ukraine in challenging Russia’s air supremacy, particularly over the Black Sea.

Although the first F-16s took to the skies half a century ago, reportedly around 2,000 of the aircraft are still in use by air forces — particularly in U.S.-aligned countries — around the globe.

Well over 4,000 F-16s have been sold, with over 25 countries operating them today. They were used to enforce no-fly zones in Iraq during the Gulf War and were heavily employed in the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s. More recently, the jets have seen combat over Afghanistan, Libya and Syria.

Linus Höller is Defense News' Europe correspondent and OSINT investigator. He reports on the arms deals, sanctions, and geopolitics shaping Europe and the world. He holds master’s degrees in WMD nonproliferation, terrorism studies, and international relations, and works in four languages: English, German, Russian, and Spanish.

柏林——立陶宛外交部长和几位官员周三证实，乌克兰已接收了首批F-16战斗机。

人们期待这些战机已久，早在 2022 年 2 月俄罗斯入侵其邻国小国之初，就已开始讨论向基辅提供这些战机。

“F-16 战机出现在乌克兰。又一件不可能的事变成了完全可能的事。”维尔纽斯外交部长加布里埃柳斯·兰茨贝吉斯在 X 上写道。

美联社和路透社援引不愿透露姓名的美国和乌克兰官员的话证实了首批战机的交付。乌克兰及其支持者对此事保持沉默；据美国国家公共电台（NPR）周四报道，乌克兰总统泽连斯基的一位高级顾问表示，他既不证实也不否认乌克兰已接收F-16战机。

据彭博社7月份报道，乌克兰将于今年夏天接收6架该型飞机，到年底将接收多达20架。

美国总统乔·拜登于2023年8月批准向乌克兰派遣F-16战斗机，但美国不会直接提供任何战斗机。乌克兰飞行员和维护人员已在西方国家接受了数月的战机训练。白宫上个月表示，“乌克兰将于今年夏天开始飞行作战型F-16战斗机。”

荷兰和丹麦均为北约成员国，是推动乌克兰获得F-16战斗机的主要力量。挪威和比利时也承诺捐赠战斗机。这四个国家共承诺提供79架第四代多用途战斗机。

目前尚不清楚F-16战机抵达乌克兰是否会改变战局，但国防官员希望它们能够帮助乌克兰挑战俄罗斯的空中优势，尤其是在黑海上空。

虽然第一架 F-16 战斗机在半个世纪前就已翱翔蓝天，但据报道，全球仍有约 2000 架该型飞机在各国空军中使用，尤其是在与美国结盟的国家。

F-16战斗机的销量已超过4000架，目前有超过25个国家在使用。它们曾在海湾战争期间被用于在伊拉克执行禁飞区任务，并在20世纪90年代的巴尔干冲突中被大量使用。近年来，这些战机还参与了阿富汗、利比亚和叙利亚的战斗。

林努斯·霍勒是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者和开源情报调查员。他报道影响欧洲乃至全球的军火交易、制裁和地缘政治。他拥有大规模杀伤性武器不扩散、恐怖主义研究和国际关系三个硕士学位，并精通英语、德语、俄语和西班牙语四种语言。