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Aviation Coalition: Sweden not to transfer Gripen fighters to Ukraine

Paul Jönsson does not rule out such a possibility in the future and states that Kiev is interested in the planes

Снимка: БГНЕС/ЕРА

The so-called "Aviation Coalition", a group of countries that help Ukraine with supplies of combat aircraft, has advised Sweden to refrain for now from transferring Gripen multi-role fighters to Ukraine. This was stated at a briefing at NATO headquarters in Brussels by Swedish Defense Minister Paul Jönsson, reports "Militarny", quoted by Focus.

He does not rule out such a possibility in the future and states that Ukraine is interested in the planes.

He explains the decision to refrain from transferring the fighters with infrastructural and technical difficulties:

"I think it would be difficult to introduce three types of combat aircraft simultaneously. "Currently, these are F-16s and also Mirage," said the Swedish Defense Minister.

In response to a question about the possible deployment of Gripen to Ukraine, he stated:

"But, as you probably know, the aviation coalition has advised us to refrain from this step for the time being and instead focus on our AWACS aircraft," commented Poul Jönsson.