Norway is joining the Netherlands and Denmark in furnishing Ukraine with much-sought-after F-16s, Aftenposten reports.
This means Ukraine has found its third partner for the delivery of fighter jets, coming on the heels of last Sunday’s pledges by the Netherlands and Denmark.
While the deal is said to involve dozens of planes, exactly how many is not yet known.
As with the F-16s from the Netherlands and Denmark, Ukraine will not be able to make use of the Norwegian planes this year, making them unlikely to be of any help in Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive.
The Oslo-Kyiv deal was struck during a surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital by Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre on Thursday, August 24th, the day Ukraine celebrates its independence.
“We are planning to donate Norwegian F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, and will provide further details about the donation, numbers and time frame for delivery, in due course,” Støre said in a statement.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the deal, which he called the “best news for our Independence Day.”
In a July 21st interview with Fox News, John Kirby, U.S. National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications admitted that F-16s alone will not make an appreciable difference in Ukraine. “It is not our assessment that the F-16s alone would be enough to turn the tide here,” he said.
In an interview that same month with pro-Kremlin newspaper Lenta.ru, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia perceives the transfer of F-16 fighters to Ukraine as a “nuclear threat” due to what Lavrov says is the jets’ capacity to carry nuclear weapons.
Russia “cannot ignore that these aircraft can carry nuclear weapons,” he said, adding that “no assurances will help here.”
As part of an international so-called “fighter jet coalition,” Norway, besides helping Ukraine to procure F-16 and other military aircraft, has also pledged to train Ukrainian pilots in how to operate the F-16s.
Like the Netherlands, Norway is replacing its fleet of F-16s with the more modern F-35 and has been on the lookout for a ‘buyer’ to offload them to.
Last year, Norway’s air force retired its 57-strong fleet of F-16s and later agreed to sell 32 of them to NATO ally Romania.
An additional 12 aircraft are slated to be sold to a private company that provides training for the U.S. Air Force. While that deal has not been finalized, these jets have been designated as being suitable for deployment in Ukraine.
