Will Ukraine now receive fighter jet support from West? It seems so.

 

The prime ministers of the UK and the Netherlands, Rishi Sunak and Mark Rutte, have agreed to build an "international coalition" to supply Kyiv with US-built F-16 fighter jets - a key weapon Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has long sought from Western allies.

The announcement was made following a meeting at the Council of Europe Summit in Iceland.

"The prime minister reiterated his belief that Ukraine's rightful place is in NATO and the leaders agreed on the importance of allies providing long-term security assistance to Ukraine," a spokesperson for Sunak's Downing Street office said on Tuesday.

Most members of the military alliance have kept open the possibility of sending their fighter jets to the war-ravaged nation, even as US President Joe Biden stressed in January that America would not do so.

According to Al Jazeera's John Psaropoulos, experts say F-16s would offer Kyiv an advantage in the war, but only if combined with missiles and targeting details, which Western nations would also have to offer and which would potentially make them more involved in the conflict.

On Monday, French leader Emmanuel Macron said his country was ready to train Ukrainian fighter pilots, even if he excluded sending any jets to Kyiv.

Earlier on Tuesday, in a speech to the Council of Europe Summit in Iceland, Zelensky reiterated his requests for Western allies to bolster Kyiv's air defences, particularly in light of the reportedly successful shooting down of several Russian missiles fired at the Ukrainian capital overnight.

Later, in his nightly address, he called the recent moves from Sunak and Rutte towards supplying Ukraine with fighter jets "a good start to the coalition".