Air Force: Part of F-16 jets that Ukraine will receive to be stored at foreign bases

Part of the F-16 fighters, which Ukraine will receive from Western allies, will be stored at foreign bases. Serhiy Holubtsov, the head of aviation of the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said in an interview with Radio Liberty that this is necessary in order to protect aircraft from Russian attacks.

"There is a certain number of aircraft that will be stored at safe air bases, not in Ukraine, so that they are not targets here. And this will be our reserve in case of need to replace faulty aircraft, during routine maintenance. That is, in order to so that we can always have a certain number of aircraft in the operational inventory, which will correspond to the number of pilots we will have," he said.

According to Holubtsov, not all the planes that will be handed over to the Air Force will come to Ukraine now. Some of them will remain in the centers where Ukrainian pilots and aviation personnel are trained: these will be Ukrainian planes that will be used to train Ukrainian pilots.

The brigadier general stated that currently four countries have confirmed the provision of these aircraft to Ukraine, but expressed the opinion that the number may increase over time, since "almost all countries that have F-16s in service are gradually re-arming with F-35s."

On May 28, 2024, Belgium announced that Ukraine would be able to use the F-16 aircraft transferred by the country only on its territory.

On May 30, Denmark confirmed that the Ukrainian military will be able to use their F-16s to strike targets inside Russia.

On June 3, the Netherlands assured that Ukraine will be able to use all 24 F-16s for attacks on the Russian Federation.