Poland’s ex-defense chief explains how his nation can help Ukraine in terms of F-16s

This opinion was expressed by the former Minister of National Defense of Poland, Janusz Onyszkiewicz, who spoke in an exclusive comment to Ukrinform.

"I think that we are talking about F-16 maintenance and repair, as well as the transfer of aircraft to Ukraine, because this is a matter of appropriate logistics and it can be done via the territory of Poland," Onyszkiewicz said.

According to him, Poland has a wide range of opportunities for F-16 maintenance and repair as the country also operates warplanes of this type.

The Polish expert noted that it is also about the transfer of aircraft to Ukraine, which should be done so that the Russians do not find out any details, including on their new home bases, to try to destroy them.

He noted that in this context, technical issues are important, in particular, how the jets will get to Poland, and later to Ukraine. According to him, NATO identifiers must be removed from the planes transferred to Ukraine therefore they must be accompanied by Polish or allied F-16 aircraft to make them visible to the ground control systems of Poland and other allies and not to confuse them with potentially hostile targets.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, President Volodymyr Zelensky said there was a positive decision from the Polish government that would allow Ukraine to receive F-16 aircraft as soon as possible.

The spokesman of the President of Ukraine, Serhiy Nykyforov, said on the air of the national telethon that the negotiations between President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, allowed for removing the last obstacle for F-16 fighter jets to finally arrive in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russia uses 300 warplanes in the war effort against Ukraine while Kyiv needs at least 128 jets to counter the Russians in the air domain.

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