Summary:
- Ukraine thanks Denmark and the Netherlands for supplying F-16 fighter jets.
- Russia expresses concerns and warns of escalation due to F-16 delivery.
- Zelensky addresses Danish parliament, expressing gratitude and mentioning Russian fears.
- Russia accuses Ukraine of launching drone attacks on its territory.
- Ukraine seeks F-16s to improve air defenses against Russian air superiority.
- Complex process outlined for F-16 delivery and training involving European allies and NATO.
Ukraine says heavy fighting continues in the eastern part of the country and caused a situation particularly difficult near the northeastern city of Kupiangsk. Rodomir Zelensky, meanwhile, addressed the Danish parliament in Copenhagen earlier and thanked lawmakers after Denmark and the Netherlands announced they will supply Kyiv with F-16 fighter jets. The Ukrainian president called the decision historic, but Russia warned it will only escalate the conflict.
Claire Sebastian looking at this, we're going to talk a bit later about whether or this will be a game changer, but it's quite worrying hearing from Russia they see it as an escalation too. I mean Russia makes these threats with every new weapon system that comes into play and even before it has, I think like Russia is obviously already the aggressor in this war, so it's a little hard to identify any retaliation from the sort of general course of aggression, but certainly there have been concerns in the west about the F-16s just how involved the process is of training involving NATO countries, the sort of maintenance and technical elements of this that would strengthen Russia's argument that it is somehow also fighting the west in this war and that it could lead to some kind of retaliation at that I think is still there, but obviously we've now crossed this Rubicon, the Netherlands and Denmark have both firmly committed now to supplying these planes and the training is according to the Ukrainian defence minister already underway, but I think this also speaks to the moment in the conflict that we're in that it's very important for President Zelensky to get out there to speak to these countries of providing aid to try to combat the kind of fatigue that we've seen creeping into some discourse in the west. Take a listen to what he said to the Danish parliament a few hours ago. Thank you for your help, all the help provided to Ukraine. Thank you for your help. Russia is afraid. Thank you. Caesars, leopards, breadless, drones, yes, they are afraid of drones. So you've got two things there, you've got the thank yous that he has to show, there have been questions as we know about sort of gratitude and things like that. I think it's a valid reference or perhaps not so valid to what we've seen this morning, but also very regularly over the past few weeks is Russia accusing Ukraine of launching drone attacks on its territory. This morning too in the Moscow region averted and now we're hearing of more in the border region of Belgrade and in Kaluga region just to the southwest of Moscow. This appears to be now part of the picture of this war, part of the Ukrainian strategy. Okay, Claire, thank you. Moscow denouncing Demox plans to provide F-16 jets to Ukraine, calling the action a quote escalation. It comes as Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses the Danish parliament to thank the nation for their support. It's a major boost coming as the Netherlands also vowed to deliver dozens of F-16s to Ukraine too. Nick Peyton-Walsh joins us now from Zaporizhia at Ukraine. Nick, the truth is these are still going to take time. I was looking at hopefully the timetable from Denmark, six by the end of the year, eight next year and then a further five. They've been a long time coming and the wait will continue a while longer. Yeah, look, I mean it's important to point out that this has been a request Ukraine has had for months to enable them to increase their defences in the air. Now it's also important to point out they've had Patriot systems. Those were considered a long shot when they were first requested and now it seems to be the tempo of how Ukraine gets stuff after increased pressure and it's fair to say here losses on the front line in the counter offensive that is not moving as fast as anybody had hoped in Ukraine's favour. They do appear now to be seeing a public flurry of activity to get the MF-16s. The Danish sending 19, the Dutch saying well, we've got 42, some of those are going to need to be used in training, we'll probably send quite a lot of the rest, I'm paraphrasing there, but this clearly a swift move after Ukraine's public statements last week that they weren't going to see anything this year at all and possibly a reflection too of certainly European anxiety that if we don't see a change in the front lines here at some point in the months ahead the Russians could dig in over the winter and the boundaries we're seeing right now of occupied Ukraine could remain that way potentially for years. So these F-16s, Ukraine says, would make a significant difference in the skies. I think it's fair to say from what we've seen on the ground that that would be the case. The biggest challenge now for Ukrainian troops is Russian air superiority, their abilities drop half metric tarm bombs at will, F-16s could challenge that and could too deliver similar blows to Russian front lines as well, but it isn't going to happen fast enough because there's been a complex scheme suggested as to how this delivery could occur, the US doesn't really seem to want its hands on it directly, it would happen through European allies, those European allies would do training in their nation countries, some seems to be happening in the UK, Sweden possibly, maybe Romania down the line, Denmark, Netherlands involved now too and then the supply of jets would be approved by the United States, indeed they've already said they will. It's a lengthy process potentially four or five months worth of training of Ukrainian pilots and then the ultimate question too, if indeed these planes get into the skies of Ukraine, who services them? It should be Ukraine, but it's complex, it's a huge lift for the Ukrainian air force certainly and there is the possibility during that that if they're going to keep the tempo up they need to make a difference, NATO may get more involved in servicing and training. That's my speculation but that may be also one of the reasons why we've seen NATO move relatively slowly on this, but once again when the pressure is there and two frankly the recognition of how important Ukraine succeeding in this war is for NATO's security that we see a public change, whether this had been long planned we may never know, but it's certainly now publicly moving at a pace and over a certainty that we didn't see last week. Julia? Certainly and Nick it's great insight, still too many questions really to answer, Nick Peyton Walsh there from Zepperychia Ukraine.
Moscow denouncing Demox plans to provide F-16 jets to Ukraine, calling the action a quote escalation. It comes as Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses the Danish parliament to thank the nation for their support. It's a major boost coming as the Netherlands also vowed to deliver dozens of F-16s to Ukraine too. Nick Peyton-Walsh joins us now from Zaporizhia at Ukraine.