This year's Christmas should be of special significance for Ukraine. Why?
It turned out that this year was the first time that Ukraine celebrated Christmas on December 25. Prior to this, due to Russian influence, Ukraine had traditionally observed January 7 as Christmas due to the Orthodox Church. In response, Al Jazeera commented that this is the first time in a century that Ukraine has done so, and it means "breaking with Russian traditions". On the 24th local time, Zelensky delivered a Christmas speech on social **. In his speech, Zelensky said that all Ukrainians are now united. 
We celebrate Christmas together. On the same day, as a big family, as a nation, as a united nation. Zelensky said. Since the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Ukraine has taken a series of measures to accelerate "de-Russification". In many places in Ukraine, buildings and monuments related to the Soviet Union and Russia were demolished in public places, and city streets were renamed after Ukrainian historical figures, artists, poets, soldiers, etc. According to previous reports, in July this year, the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) of Ukraine ** said that Zelensky signed a law to adjust the official Christmas date in Ukraine from January 7 to December 25, which is the traditional Orthodox Church. Regarding a series of "de-Russification" moves in Ukraine, Russia's "Izvestia" reported that the Ukrainian authorities' various measures are aimed at creating chaos and ** among the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the people. In order to subordinate themselves to the West, the Ukrainian authorities do not hesitate to abandon Russian values and traditions, showing that they have betrayed the people's faith and interests for the support of the West. In my opinion, the comments of the Russian side are extremely ridiculous, since Ukraine and Russia have fundamentally broken, why not abandon Russian values and traditions?Could it be that you killed my parents, wife, and children, and I still have to be grateful to youOr, if Russia really regards Ukraine as its own Orthodox Church, how can it brutally kill the civilian population of Ukraine?On the contrary, in the case of the threat of war in Ukraine, it is the Western ** religious countries that actively lend a hand, so at this time, if you don't change the Christmas of the West, will you continue to live the Christmas of the Orthodox Church?Speaking of help, the latest good news is that on December 23, Dutch Prime Minister Rutte announced that he would provide Ukraine with the first batch of 18 F-16 fighter jets, which is the first time that the West has provided F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. Seeing this news, I think Zelensky should burst into tears, because Ukraine has dreamed of F-16 fighters, and has been working hard for it for more than a year, and now it has finally come true. It's really gratifying - this should be the best Christmas gift Ukraine has ever received!
So, what kind of fighter is the F-16 that makes Ukraine value it so much?In January 1972, the U.S. Air Force officially proposed the development plan of a new generation of fighters, which required a maximum speed of 2 times the speed of sound, an altitude of 18,000 meters, and an altitude of 9,000 meters from m09 acceleration to m15. It takes no more than 1 minute, and the aircraft should be small, lightweight, and cheap. In December 1973, General Dynamics (now part of Lockheed Martin, the largest U.S. arms company) won the bid for a prototype that was officially given the U.S. Air Force the official military designation F-16, nicknamed "Fighting Falcon". It made its first flight in December 1976 and began mass production to equip the U.S. Air Force in December 1978. The U.S. Air Force originally planned to order 650 aircraft, which was later increased to 2,384, and a total of 1,859 aircraft were actually ordered, and the U.S. Navy also ordered 26 aircraft. The F-16 production line continued until 2000, with a total production of 4,500 aircraft. This output is very high among the fighter jets after World War II. In addition to the United States, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Norway, Poland, Chile, Portugal, Jordan, Italy, Oman, Morocco, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Turkey, Pakistan, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Bahrain, Venezuela and Taiwan are also equipped. Among them, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Turkey, Israel, and South Korea have introduced F-16 production lines and produce some F-16s in their own countries. Japan introduced a patent for the production of the F-16, and on this basis, developed the next generation of domestic fighter-attack aircraft, the F-2. Therefore, after the 1990s, the F-16 was almost the mainstream fighter used in Western countries, and was known as the "international fighter". The main feature of the F-16 is excellent flight performance, emphasizing medium and low-altitude transonic maneuverability and long-range combat capabilitiesThe thrust-to-weight ratio is high and the wing load is low. The avionics are advanced, there is a good all-weather combat capability, and the downward firing capability has been greatly improvedHighlight air combat capabilities, but also take into account good ground attack capabilities;The reliability and maintainability of the aircraft are good. The performance of the F-16 in actual combat is also extremely eye-catching, in the 1982 Bekaa Valley air battle, the Israeli Air Force's F-15 and F-16 were almost "** Syrian fighters" in the air, achieving a brilliant result of 82:0, which amazed the world. Therefore, the arrival of the F-16 will certainly enable Ukraine to greatly improve its air combat capabilities and deal a heavy blow to Russia. So why did the Netherlands first aid the F-16 to Ukraine this time?The United States is the producer and property owner of the F-16, but the United States has always been very cautious in assisting Ukraine with cutting-edge **, in order to avoid provoking Russia and further escalating the war, the United States obviously cannot aid the F-16 first. The Netherlands is different. An important reason is that in 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by Russian-backed Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine, because the passenger plane was flying from the Netherlands to Malaysia, so most of the people on the plane were Dutch - 196 Dutch citizens were killed, so the Netherlands can be described as full of hatred for Russia, and the previous artillery shells to aid Ukraine wrote "for Malaysia Airlines flight MH17". In addition to the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Belgium have also pledged to provide Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets by the end of the year, bringing the total number of F-16s provided by these four countries to more than 70, which will undoubtedly be an air force to be reckoned with. 
After Ukraine gets the F-16, its main opponent is Russia's MiG-29, Su-27, Su-30, Su-35 and other Russian fighters. Compared with the MiG-29, Su-27, and Su-30, which are also third-generation aircraft, the F-16 has a very big advantage by virtue of its advanced avionics system, helmet display, and overwhelming information warfare superiority, as well as short, medium, and long-range air-to-air missiles that are significantly ahead of performance. Although Russia has a fourth-generation Su-57, the number of Su-57s is too small and basically does not have real combat effectiveness. Therefore, the arrival of the F-16 will inevitably pose a huge challenge to Russia's air supremacy. Next question, does Ukraine have enough pilots?Since the end of last year, Ukrainian pilots have been trained to fly F-16 in the United States, Romania and other countries, and in a year's time, with the help of flight simulators, they can basically complete basic flight subjects, but after all, the training time is too short, at best, they are "rookie" level. It is difficult for a pilot of this level to have an advantage in real combat. However, there are a large number of retired F-16 pilots in the West. Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Johnson is already preparing to recruit volunteer pilots. It is very likely that the Ukrainian pilots are just a pretense, and the real ones who are the main ones are Western volunteer pilots, a bit similar to the American Volunteer Aid China Flight Team during the Anti-Japanese War - that is, the famous "Flying Tigers". So pilots shouldn't be a problem. As we all know, air supremacy in modern warfare is the decisive factor, and one of the reasons why the Ukrainian army has not made significant progress this autumn is that it does not have air supremacy. If the Ukrainian army regains air supremacy, then it is very likely that there will be a major victory in the spring and summer of next year. Speaking of which, dear readers and friends, are you overjoyed?Let's bless Ukraine together, justice and freedom will prevail!100 help plan