According to media report:

First F-16 jets delivered to Ukraine

(Bild: APA/AFP/SIMON WOHLFAHRT)

The first Ukrainian pilots have already been trained. According to a media report, the first of the promised F-16 fighter jets have now landed in Ukraine.

As the Bloomberg news agency explained on Wednesday, this is a small number of the fighter jets that the Ukrainian armed forces have been longing for. A US government official confirmed the delivery to the AP news agency. There has been no confirmation from Kiev so far.

Despite its advanced age, the single-engine multi-role combat aircraft, originally developed by US aerospace company General Dynamics and now produced by defense contractor Lockheed Martin, is still the backbone of many countries' air forces. In addition to the USA, Turkey, Taiwan, South Korea, Israel and Egypt, dozens of F-16s are in service with many European air forces.

Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway had pledged to provide a total of 60 aircraft. As with every heavy weapon type (battle tanks, medium-range missiles, etc.), the delivery was delayed for months - mainly due to fears that the conflict with Russia could escalate further.

During a visit to a Danish military base, the Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Selensky was already allowed to sit in the F-16 cockpit.

(Bild: AP)

Heavy air attack on Kiev
The fighter jets are intended to break Russia's air superiority. As recently as Wednesday night, the Russian military carried out dozens of drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital Kiev and other parts of the country. Kiev's military administration described the attack as one of the strongest on Ukraine during the entire war. "Over 40 enemy drones were shot down in two waves over the Kiev area and on the outskirts of the capital," the administration announced on Telegram. However, not a single drone reached its target. 

The Ukrainian military, for its part, reportedly attacked a warehouse for weapons and other military equipment in the Russian Kursk Oblast on Wednesday night. Kursk borders Ukraine and has repeatedly been the target of Ukrainian shelling. The General Staff in Kiev announced on Telegram that the strike was carried out with a converted Ukrainian naval missile system. Explosions had been observed at the target and a fire had broken out. The navy has its own Neptun anti-ship missiles, which can also be used against ground targets. These can reach targets almost 300 kilometers away. Kursk itself is only just over 80 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.