“Ukraine Calls on UK and Germany for Eurofighter Typhoon Delivery”

While the delivery of F-16s has not even been completed, Ukraine has already set its sights on another fighter jet: it is calling on the United Kingdom and Germany to deliver the Eurofighter Typhoon. The UK and Germany do not have the F-16 themselves, but they do have the fighter aircraft developed in Europe.

According to Ukrainian Defense Minister Reznikov, by supplying the Eurofighter Typhoon, Germany and the UK can still contribute to the coalition of countries that must provide Ukraine with modern fighter jets. So far, Ukraine has only Soviet-era MiGs in its arsenal. Poland and Slovakia have also supplied Ukraine with MiGs from their stock.

For the time being, the UK and Germany do not want to make any promises. The aircraft would be of little use to Ukraine in the short term, because the training to be able to fly it takes a long time. Nevertheless, it would be an “important step” if Germany and the UK do deliver, according to Reznikov.

The same argument about the long duration of training was used with the F-16. Recently, however, the G7 summit in Japan led to a breakthrough, when the US said it would no longer stand in the way. As the country where the F-16 was developed, the US had to give permission to train Ukrainian pilots for the fighter jet. The Netherlands is one of the countries that will be training the pilots.

It has not yet come to a concrete commitment for the delivery of the devices. The Netherlands is also one of the allies on which Ukraine has pinned its hopes.

Joram Bolle