The head of the Dutch Ministry of Defense Kaisa Olongren told the publication "Ukrainskaya Pravda" , that Ukraine will receive the first F-16 fighter jets from its Western allies this summer.
"The deliveries will then be put into action. There will be more and more aircraft and that will change your air force," Olongren said.
She added that first Denmark would send warplanes to Ukraine, then the Netherlands, "but this is a joint effort". Olongren noted that he could not give an exact date for the delivery of the planes.
In May, Belgian Foreign Minister Aya Labib announced that the first F-16s from Belgium should arrive in Ukraine before the end of the year.
Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway have pledged to transfer about 60 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. According to Western media reports, the Ukrainian armed forces will receive them in several batches over a long period of time and will not be able to immediately put all the aircraft into combat, as the training of the pilots is taking place more slowly than Kiev would like.
Russia has issued a warning to the West over Belgium's planned delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, which Sergei Lavrov described as a "signal action by NATO in the nuclear sphere".