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.

  • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    No one seems to remember this flight, and none still faced any repercussuions for killing 100+ peoples out of blue. I don’t think it was deliberare, but that incompetence neeeds to meet repercussions, and instead it was covered up. Why? Was it just a powerplay? It in itself casts a lot of doubts. And not many NL families can really lay it off. They aren’t used to just lose people to an ‘accident’, caused by ‘allegedly’ DNR rocket under an ‘allegedly’ russian control. Eventually, they would. It’s just so stupid to postpone it instead of accepting the misfire.

    • jasory@programming.dev
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      11 months ago

      “none still faced any repercussions,”

      Because nobody ever does. This has happened several times in the past, and it’s always coughed up as an accident because making a scene out of it would cause more problems.