{"id":284875,"date":"2024-04-04T06:13:43","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T06:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=284875"},"modified":"2024-04-05T06:47:41","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T06:47:41","slug":"f-16-fighter-jets-no-longer-relevant-says-ukrainian-military-official","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=284875","title":{"rendered":"F-16 fighter jets \u2018no longer relevant\u2019, says Ukrainian military official"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Barnes \u2013 The Telegraph April 3, 2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n

American-made F-16 fighter jets<\/a> due to arrive in Ukraine this summer are \u201cno longer relevant\u201d, a senior Ukrainian military official has said.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s air force is expected to take delivery of the first tranche of a dozen aircraft in July after Ukrainian pilots have been trained and the country\u2019s airfields prepared.<\/p>\n

Before their arrival, the Western warplanes had been held up by some as a potential war-winner that could turn the tide of the conflict<\/a> in Kyiv\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften, we just don\u2019t get the weapons systems at the time we need them \u2013 they come when they\u2019re no longer relevant,\u201d a Ukrainian high-ranking officer told the Politico news website.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery weapon has its own right time. F-16s were needed in 2023; they won\u2019t be right for 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ukrainian forces are being beaten back by their Russian enemy across almost the entire 600-mile front line \u2013 a situation blamed on worsening ammunition shortages, partly caused by a blocked $60 billion US aid package<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This has increased calls by Kyiv for more traditional weapons, such as air defence interceptors, artillery howitzers and shells.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need howitzers and shells, hundreds of thousands of shells, and rockets,\u201d the officer said, estimating that Ukraine needed four million shells and two million drones.<\/p>\n

Ahead of his arrival in Brussels for a meeting to mark the 75th anniversary of Nato, Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian foreign minister, called for Kyiv\u2019s Western allies to prioritise sending more US-made Patriot air defence batteries<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeven Patriot systems would be optimal, but let me be modest,\u201d he said. \u201cWith five Patriot batteries, we can defend the main industrial cities against Russian missiles.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US, Netherlands and Germany have so far contributed several of the systems, which are estimated to cost about $1 billion each.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd once we\u2019ve taken the threat away, the Patriots<\/a> go back to where they were stationed.\u201d<\/p>\n

But after a meeting with his Polish counterpart, Radek Sikorski, Mr Kuleba upgraded his demand to \u201call Patriot batteries available around the world that can be provided to Ukraine must be delivered to Ukraine\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cUkraine is currently the only country in the world that defends itself against ballistic missile attacks almost every day,\u201d the Ukrainian official added.<\/p>\n

At their meeting in Brussels, Nato foreign ministers are discussing a $100 billion, five-year military aid package for Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The Telegraph reported on Tuesday<\/a> that the scheme, dubbed Nato Mission Ukraine, was being drawn up to shield Kyiv from the \u201cwinds of political change\u201d in the United States.<\/p>\n

Jens Stoltenberg, the alliance\u2019s secretary-general, told reporters on Wednesday: \u201cWhat is obvious is that we need new and more money for Ukraine and we need it over many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to warn again that the political dispute in the US Congress was helping Vladimir Putin\u2019s forces seize Ukrainian territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s one of the reasons why the Ukrainians have to ration the number of artillery shells, why they have problems standing up against the Russian force with overwhelming military power because they\u2019re able to outgun them with more ammunition and more artillery,\u201d Mr Stoltenberg said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, has warned Russia is preparing to mobilise 300,000 soldiers by June.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Events are moving fast in Ukraine. So much so that the F-16, which only a few months ago was labeled as a potential \u201cgame-changer\u201d in the war with Russia, is now seen as \u201cno longer relevant\u201d by Ukrainian officials <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":247143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[91,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-russia","category-ukraine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=284875"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284912,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284875\/revisions\/284912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/247143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=284875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=284875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=284875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}