NATO-member Norway will donate F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, whose forces are embroiled in a troublesome counteroffensive towards Russia, Norwegian media mentioned Thursday. The studies got here as Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stre was visiting Kyiv.
There was no official affirmation of the plan, which was reported by Norwegian broadcasters NRK and TV2. Norway can be the third European nation after the Netherlands and Denmark to donate F-16 planes.
Ukraine has lengthy pleaded for the delicate fighter jets to offer it a fight edge. It lately launched a long-anticipated counteroffensive towards the Kremlin’s forces with out air cowl, inserting its troops on the mercy of Russian aviation and artillery.
In February, oil-rich Norway introduced that it’s donating 75 billion kroner ($7 billion) to Kyiv as a part of a five-year assist bundle, making Norway one of many world’s greatest donors to Ukraine.
The cash might be cut up evenly between army and humanitarian help over 5 years, damaged down to fifteen billion kroner (USD 1.4 billion) yearly.
The Norwegian authorities has lengthy mentioned it’s contemplating sending F-16s to Ukraine. In January, Norway obtained the primary of the 52 F-35s it has ordered. The brand new fighter jets are to interchange Norway’s fleet of F-16.
Final week, the Netherlands and Denmark introduced that they’ll donate F-16 plane. Denmark mentioned it’ll present 19 planes, whereas the Netherlands has not mentioned what number of planes it’ll donate.
Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy toured a number of European nations, together with the Netherlands and Denmark, however skipped Norway.
