The Netherlands will supply Ukraine with eighteen F-16 fighter jets, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte confirmed on Friday. He wrote on social media that he notified his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of the caretaker Cabinet's decision during a phone call on Friday morning.

The Netherlands will supply Ukraine with eighteen F-16 fighter jets, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte confirmed on Friday. He wrote on social media that he notified his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of the caretaker Cabinet’s decision during a phone call on Friday morning.

The Netherlands already confirmed in August that it would supply Ukraine with the aircraft after receiving permission from the United States, where the warplanes are manufactured. Zelenskyy had requested the aircraft during earlier conversations with its allies. Although it was never officially confirmed that the Netherlands would provide 18 aircraft in total, it was known that the Dutch military had 18 surplus F-16s that were not in an operational state. The other 24 are operational, even as the Dutch Air Force has been upgrading its fleet with the newer F-35.

  • FinishingDutch@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    11 months ago

    Well, I for one remember. And will until the day I die.

    When the aircraft was shot down, I was following the news on Twitter. You got to see everything. There were images of people still strapped in their seats, smashed into the ground. Little kids too. It was haunting. Especially when the looting started, and you saw videos of people taking things from the dead. It was surreal, especially considering there were 198 Dutch people on board; two thirds of the total. You could recognise typical Dutch things like supermarket bags, Dutch passports, clothing, that sort of thing.

    Speaking for myself personally: I hope our jets, guns and ammo kill at least a 10 Russians for every victim on that plane. It won’t fix what was done. But we’ll make sure Russia remembers their ‘mistake’.

    • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      3·
      11 months ago

      Vote to send more materiel to Ukraine, to cockblock russian influence in all meetings, to deny any of our transit and deals on your soil. You have democracy and you can use it for that. Make it stop.