Part of the F-16 fighters that Ukraine will receive from Western allies will be stored at foreign bases. This was stated by Serhiy Holubtsov, chief of aviation of the Ukrainian Air Force Command.

“There is a certain number of aircraft that will be stored at safe airbases outside of Ukraine so that they are not targeted here. And this will be our reserve, if necessary, to replace faulty aircraft during routine maintenance. That is, so that we can always have a certain number of aircraft in the operational fleet, which corresponds to the number of pilots we will have,” he said.

According to Holubtsov, not all of the aircraft to be transferred to the Air Force will come to Ukraine now. Some of them will remain in the centers where Ukrainian pilots and aviation personnel are trained: these will be Ukrainian aircraft that will be used to train Ukrainian pilots.

The brigadier general emphasized that 4 countries have confirmed the provision of these aircraft to Ukraine, but expressed the opinion that the number may increase later, as “almost all countries with F-16s are gradually rearming with F-35s.”