Zelenskiy unveils Ukraine's F-16s

The Ukrainian leader announced the supply of the warplanes, which Kyiv has lobbied for since the first year of the war, as he met air force pilots at an airbase flanked by two F-16s with two more of them flying overhead.

"F-16s are in Ukraine. We did it. I am proud of our guys who are mastering these jets and have already started using them for our country," he said at a location that authorities asked not to be disclosed for security reasons.

The arrival of the jets is a wartime milestone for Ukraine that caps many months of waiting, although it remains unclear how much of an immediate impact they will have in enhancing air defences and on the battlefield.

Talking to the reporters on the tarmac of an airfield, Zelenskiy said Ukraine still did not have enough pilots trained to use the F-16s or enough of the jets themselves.

"The positive thing is that we are expecting additional F-16s ... many guys are now training," he said.

It was very important, he said, that Kyiv's allies found ways to expand the training programmes and opportunities for both Ukrainian pilots and engineering teams.

Until now, Ukraine has relied on an ageing fleet of Soviet-era warplanes that are outgunned by Russia's more advanced and far more numerous fleet.

Russia has used that edge to conduct regular long-range missile strikes on targets across Ukraine and also to pound Ukrainian frontline positions with thousands of guided bombs, supporting its forces that are slowly advancing in the east.

Zelenskiy said it had taken hundreds of meetings and unrelenting diplomacy to obtain the F-16s.

"We often heard 'it is impossible' as an answer but we still made our ambition, our defensive need, possible," he said.

It remains unclear what missiles the fighter jets are equipped with. A longer range of missiles would allow them to have a greater battlefield impact, military analysts say.

AP

Photo by Reuters