Yesterday we also said that an important reason why Ukraine's first effect this year is unsatisfactory is that it does not have air supremacy, and how to improve the combat level of the Ukrainian Air Force as soon as possible has always been a problem studied by Western military aid.
At present, it is a practical way to provide Ukraine with the famous F16 fighters.
Because although this fighter is no longer the most advanced model in the West, it has a large number of air forces in various countries around the world, and it has been tested many times in actual combat, both in terms of reliability and economy, it is in line with the current situation in Ukraine.
What's more, although this fighter is no longer advanced, it is enough to deal with those Russian fighters.
And today's news shows that the Netherlands is about to deliver the first batch of 18 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.
According to a Reuters report in Amsterdam on December 22: The Netherlands** said on Friday that the Netherlands will deliver 18 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine to help it fight the Russian invasion.
Dutch caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte posted on social media: "Today I inform Zelensky** that my country** has decided to prepare for the delivery of the first batch of 18 F-16s to Ukraine....”
In fact, the provision of Western fighter jets to Ukraine has always been a secret matter, and for a long time, there have been many theories on this issue, some of which are also deliberately smokescreens.
But when the Dutch leader officially announced the news, it showed that some related matters, such as how American manufacturers provide after-sales maintenance services for aircraft, professional training for Ukrainian pilots, are already in place.
This also means that we will soon be able to see the Ukrainian Air Force flying the F16 and fighting the Russian army. It's really exciting.
In addition to getting the F16, the Ukrainian Air Force has another happy event today.
The commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Mykola Oleshchuk, announced today (December 22) that in the southern direction of Ukraine, three Russian Su34 fighter-bombers were successfully destroyed.
In recent months, the Russian army has intensified its efforts to drop gliding bombs on Ukrainian targets, and these heavy gliding bombs are often dropped more than 50 kilometers from the front line, which makes it difficult for the Ukrainian army's air defense system to intercept, so it has caused great losses to Ukraine.
And the Su34 of the Russian Air Force is the main model for delivering gliding bombs.
After the incident, according to military observers, the Ukrainian army was able to shoot down 3 Su34s at a time, possibly moving the Patriot missile system forward.
At present, the information obtained is that the three warplanes were shot down by a Patriot 3 missile launched by Ukraine near Kherson, and the pilots on board have all been killed.
The Su34 is a fighter-bomber developed by the Russian company Sukhoi, which combines the advantages of the Su27 and Su30, which can not only engage in air combat, but also perform tactical bombing. He has previously performed well in the fight against ISIS in Syria.
However, fighting against ISIS, that is, frying oil depots or something, does not require high performance of fighters.
And after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, until today, the Su34 has been shot down at least five times.
As early as March 5, 2022, about two weeks after the outbreak of the war, a Su34 was shot down by Ukraine near Chernihiv.
And today, three planes were shot down at once.
In other words, in a war in which it has absolute air supremacy, at least 8 Russian Su34 fighters were shot down, and this kind of record is disastrous for any kind of fighter.
This fully shows that the Russian army's current combat capability is far behind the world's advanced level, and not only is there a very large gap in the level of command and the degree of informationization, but also the design concept of the fighter is also backward.
In this war, the Russian Air Force has exposed problems such as insufficient attention to the risks of low-altitude bombing and very poor long-range coordinated air combat capabilities.
And the Ukrainian Air Force not only shot down three main fighters of the Russian army in today's day, but also received 18 F16s with the assistance of the Netherlands, which was definitely a highlight day.
In addition to the above two good news, there is another thing that is also worth celebrating for Ukraine, Japan passed a bill today, which will allow foreign sales in the future**.
Since Japan was a defeated country in World War II, it was stipulated after the war that they could not have offensive military forces, nor could they sell **. But this war in Ukraine has changed that.
Since the United States is now the largest donor to Ukraine, and the United States is the world's largest exporter, the US military itself has a very large demand for arms, which has caused the problem of insufficient production capacity for US aid to Ukraine.
After Japan passed the export bill this time, major military enterprises such as Raytheon in the United States authorized Japan to produce Patriot missile systems, so Japan can sell the finished products to the United States, and then the United States will support Ukraine, which can greatly improve the efficiency of the United States' assistance to Ukraine.
This change is thanks to the war in Ukraine initiated by Putin.
Putin is also grateful to countries such as Denmark and Finland in Northern Europe, which have joined NATO since the outbreak of the war, and more recently, countries close to Russia, such as Sweden, Norway and Finland, have signed treaties with the US military inviting them to deploy troops in their military bases.
At present, the number of military bases that the US military can deploy in these countries has reached 36. It's amazing.
After the deployment of US troops in Finland, they are only 180 kilometers in a straight line from St. Petersburg and can deliver lightning strikes on the Russian Northern Fleet. The NATO threat that Putin has often talked about is now really here.
Two years after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Europe has realized that Ukraine is a strategic barrier between them and Russia, and after Russia passes the troop increase bill, the total number of troops can reach 1.7 million in the future, which is enough to threaten the whole of Europe.
Therefore, Europe has begun to build and form a strategic defense system with Ukraine at its core. In addition to the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and the Nordic countries have all made it clear that they will continue to assist Ukraine.
In fact, the 2 years of brutal war did not crush the Ukrainians, but made the ** people pay a heavy price.
At this year's year-end press conference, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has made it clear that the United States will continue to unite countries around the world to support Ukraine's freedom and independence, and ensure the defeat of aggression.
Today's victory for the Ukrainian Air Force is yet another proof that what Blinken said will come true.
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