Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Ihor Zhovkva said that Ukraine and Sweden are negotiating the provision of Saab JAS-39 Gripen fighter jets to Kyiv.
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This is a topic that my president constantly raises with the Swedish leadership. This was the case even before Sweden joined NATO. For obvious reasons, they were not ready to make any promises back then, since they had finalized their membership in the Alliance. Now the country is in NATO, and my president is again communicating with the Swedish Prime Minister, and our Ministry of Defense with the relevant Swedish authorities. These fighters are as good as the F-16, and we are moving in this direction, Zhovkva says.
Earlier it became known that Ukraine refused Swedish JAS 39 Gripen fighters due to the difficulty of their simultaneous integration with the F-16. This was reported by Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström.
He said that Ukraine could have received Swedish JAS 39 Gripen, but rejected them during the negotiations. The decision was influenced by the availability of F-16 fighters, the most frequently used aircraft by NATO countries, so Kyiv decided that it would be too complicated to operate two different aircraft systems. However, according to Billström, Sweden remains open to discussing Gripen deliveries in the future.
It’s not just about acquiring aircraft and training pilots. These are complex systems, and it would be too difficult to implement two of them at the same time, Billstrom said.
Let us recall that a year ago the Swedish government announced that it would begin training Ukrainian pilots on the JAS 39 Gripen and aviation personnel for them, however, apparently, these plans were never realized.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.