Zelenskyy explains how 61 F-16 fighters will arrive in Ukraine

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke about the difficulties that stand in the way of Western F-16 fighters to Ukraine. Zelenskyy announced this at the Crimean Platform summit, the Ukrainian Pravda reports.

The President said that 19 aircraft will be transferred to Ukraine by Denmark. They will be supplied "in different stages" and "not quickly," because Ukraine needs to prepare the appropriate pilots, specialists and engineers.

"I'll tell you this: several pilots serve dozens (of specialists) of technical personnel," he explained.

Besides, Zelenskyy continued, in Ukraine it is necessary to prepare infrastructure for modern fighters. "We must understand that our infrastructure is not modern, not for F-16. We will build it as soon as possible," he said.

According to the President, Ukraine "can count" on 42 more aircraft from the Netherlands. Of these, Ukrainian pilots will train on 18. When the training is completed, the fighters will go to Ukraine.

"The rest (of the F-16) we can get as soon as our pilots are ready. In general, this is a very serious number of aircraft... I'll tell you frankly: we were counting on at least 12 (fighters)," Zelenskyy concluded.

He added that it is now very important for Ukraine to train pilots, and this is not an easy task, since in order to send a pilot to training, he must be taken from the battlefield.

Zelenskyy also said that there are already missiles for Western fighters in Ukraine.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on Sunday, August 20, the authorities of Denmark and the Netherlands announced their agreement to transfer multifunctional F-16 fighters to Ukraine, for which permission was previously received from the United States.

The first application for the provision of fighters was made by the Dutch government. The country is armed with 42 F-16 aircraft.

The Danish Ministry of Defense said that Ukraine will be able to use F-16 fighters only within its territory.