#F-16

Bulgaria will officially receive the first of a new fleet of F-16 multirole combat aircraft on Friday.

Ukrainian counterintelligence said on Tuesday it had detained 12 people collecting information on F-16 fighter jets, adding that it had broken up “the largest Russian spy ring” operating in northern and southern Ukraine.

Ukraine has received a second batch of F-16 fighter jets from Denmark, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday.

Denmark’s prime minister has said Ukraine must receive all the military support it needs with no restrictions imposed by donors on its use.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Ukraine’s Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk on Friday, according to a presidential decree.

An F-16 fighter jet used by Ukraine crashed on Monday, Kyiv's military said, the first such loss reported since the long-awaited arrival of the U.S.-made planes in the country was confirmed this month.

Ukraine has received the first batch of the F-16 multi-role fighter aircraft it has been pushing the West to provide as it seeks to defend against increasingly vigorous aerial assaults by Russia.

The deal with Belgium follows a similar agreement Zelenskyy secured on Monday, May 27, with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

Russia has no designs on any NATO country and will not attack Poland, the Baltic states, or the Czech Republic, but if the West supplies F-16 fighters to Ukraine, then they will be shot down by Russian forces, President Vladimir Putin said late on Wednesday.

The New York Times reports that 12 Ukrainian pilots are set to be ready for combat flights on F-16 aircraft after completing training in Denmark, the UK, and the U.S. However, by that time, only six out of the 45 promised F-16s from European allies will have reached Kyiv.