More details have emerged on the news that the Netherlands and Denmark will supply F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.
Denmark will deliver 19 jets in total, with the first six due to be shipped to Ukraine around new year, Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen said this afternoon.
A further eight will be supplied next year, followed by five in 2025, she added.
The comments came as Frederiksen held a joint press conference with Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the Skrydstrup airbase in Denmark.
“We know that your freedom is our freedom. We also know that you need more weapons,” Frederiksen told him.
“This is why we are announcing that we are donating 19 F-16 fighter jets.”
The Netherlands has 42 F-16s available, but has yet to decide whether all of them will be donated, Dutch premier Mark Rutte said earlier.
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Volodymyr Zelenskiy is in Denmark, having landed at Skrydstrup airbase in Vojens at around 4.30pm (1430 GMT).
He was greeted by Danish PM Mette Frederiksen, foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and defence minister Jakob Ellemann-Jensen.
The visit will see them examine the F-16s and talk about the start of Ukrainian pilot training, the Danish premier’s office said.
“Denmark fully supports Ukraine and is ready” to do so “for as long as necessary”, Frederiksen said in a statement ahead of Zelenskiy’s arrival and a joint press conference later on Sunday.
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Summary of the day so far...
The Netherlands and Denmark have said they will give F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine once conditions for the transfer have been met, Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte said on Sunday as Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited his country. Rutte said the Netherlands has 42 F-16s available in all, but it is too early to say whether all of them will be donated, Reuters reports. Zelenskiy arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday in a push to boost Ukraine’s air defences, and is expected to continue to Denmark later in the day.
There have been increasing reports of SA-5 Gammon missiles striking Russia, with drones regularly hitting Moscow, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update. The leadership of Russia’s aerospace forces is likely under considerable pressure to improve air defences over the western parts of the country, the MoD added.
The Russian defence ministry said on Sunday it had prevented two separate drone strikes on Belgorod region, the border province most regularly attacked by Ukraine, Reuters reports. The local governor earlier said on Telegram that 12 airborne targets had been downed on the approaches to Belgorod city, before later saying only three drones had been shot down.
Russia said Ukrainian drones had attacked four separate regions in a flurry of attempted strikes on Sunday, injuring five people and forcing two of Moscow’s airports to briefly divert flights.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has vowed to hit back after seven people, including a six-year-old girl, were reported to have been killed and more than 140 injured in a Russian missile strike on a central square in the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on Saturday. Ukraine’s president had noted the dead included a six-year-old girl and that there were 15 children among the injured.
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Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the F-16 fighter jets would help strengthen Ukraine’s air defences and help its counter-offensive, Reuters reports.
“Aircraft can speed up this process,” he said.
“We are speaking about air defence, because we have the winter ahead of us and we understand more than anyone else in the world what winter without electricity is like.”
Mark Rutte said it was clear that F-16s would not be transferred right away, as it will take time to properly train Ukrainian pilots and to prepare the needed infrastructure for the use of the planes.
“The military training will start in the very near future, and then it will take of course some time for the planes to get operational with well-trained pilots, but we’ll do everything to make it happen as soon as possible,” the Dutch prime minister said.
Zelenskiy arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday and is expected to continue to Denmark later in the day.
In a statement about the F-16 commitment, the Danish defence minister, Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, said:
It makes me proud that Denmark, together with the Netherlands, will donate F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine’s fight for freedom against Russia and its senseless aggression.
Denmark’s support for Ukraine is unwavering, and with the donation of F-16 aircraft, Denmark is now leading the way.
A coalition of 11 countries will start training Ukrainian pilots to fly the F-16 fighter jets later this month in Denmark, the Danish defence ministry said last week.
Zelenskiy has declined to say how many Ukrainian pilots would undergo training in Denmark and later in Romania, citing security reasons, AP reports.
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More information has come in about the commitment from the Netherlands and Denmark to deliver the F-16s to Ukraine.
Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, said that the Netherlands has 42 F-16s available in all, but it is too early to say whether all of them will be donated.
The Danish foreign ministry also confirmed its commitment to delivering F-16s in a statement on Sunday.
In a joint press conference with Volodymyr Zelenskiy at a military airbase in Eindhoven on Sunday, Rutte said:
Today we can announce that the Netherlands and Denmark commit to the transfer of F-16 aircraft to Ukraine and the Ukrainian airforce, including cooperation with the United States and other partners once the conditions for such a transfer have been met.
Zelenskiy, who called the deal a “breakthrough agreement”, said the exact number of aircraft would be discussed “a little later”.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has said Moscow will regard western F-16 fighter jets sent to Ukraine as a “nuclear” threat because of their capacity to carry atomic weapons.
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Netherlands and Denmark to supply F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, Dutch PM says
Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, has said the Netherlands and Denmark will give an unspecified number of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine once conditions for the transfer have been met.
The pledge, made as Volodymyr Zelenskiy visits the Netherlands, is the first real promise of F-16s for Ukraine’s armed forces. It comes a few days after the US approved the possible delivery of the fighter jets by the Netherlands and Denmark.
Ukraine mounted a high-profile international lobbying effort to obtain the jets from the start of the war, eventually overcoming US reluctance in May, when the president, Joe Biden, endorsed training programmes for Ukrainian pilots on F-16s. At that time it was hoped training would begin “in the coming weeks”.
The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a lightweight fighter aircraft that was initially designed in the 1970s. It first went into service in 1979, and was used heavily by the US air force in both Iraq wars and in Afghanistan.
Ukraine currently operates a small air force based on Soviet standard aircraft, but it is not a match for its larger Russian equivalent.
Its limited numbers mean it can only run a handful of missions each day, and it struggles to counter Russian dominance of the air space close to the frontline.
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The Russian defence ministry said on Sunday it had prevented two separate drone strikes on Belgorod region, the border province most regularly attacked by Ukraine, Reuters reports.
The local governor said on Telegram that 12 airborne targets had been downed on the approaches to Belgorod city, before later saying only three drones had been shot down.
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Summary of the day so far...
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president, arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday amid an ongoing drive to boost Ukraine’s air defences. Zelenskiy is meeting Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte at a military airbase in the southern city of Eindhoven.
There have been increasing reports of SA-5 Gammon missiles striking Russia, with drones regularly hitting Moscow, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update.
Russia said Ukrainian drones had struck three separate regions on Sunday, injuring five people and forcing two of Moscow’s airports to briefly divert flights.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has vowed to hit back after seven people, including a six-year-old girl, were reported to have been killed and more than 140 injured in a Russian missile strike on a central square in the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on Saturday. “I am sure our soldiers will respond to Russia for this terrorist attack. Respond tangibly,” Zelenskiy said in a video address published in the early hours of Sunday at the end of a visit to Sweden.
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The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, has welcomed back Ukraine’s president to his country.
Welcome back to the Netherlands, President @ZelenskyyUa.
— Mark Rutte (@MinPres) August 20, 2023
🇺🇦🤝🇳🇱 pic.twitter.com/1bXTrVWnHs
Rutte said in May the Netherlands was seriously considering handing over F-16 fighter jets, but it’s not clear how many it would have available and when.
According to figures from the Dutch defence ministry, the Netherlands currently has 24 operational F-16s which will be phased out by mid-2024.
Another 18 of the jets made by Lockheed Martin are available for sale, of which 12 have been provisionally sold, Reuters reports.
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Laying out his agenda for his visit to the Netherlands on Sunday, Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted on Telegram:
Together with the first lady and the team, we arrived in the Netherlands. As always, we will have substantive talks with prime minister Mark Rutte.
The main issue is F-16 for Ukraine to protect our people from Russian terror. We are getting stronger. The agenda also includes the Global Peace Summit, the PeaceFormula, and bringing the terrorist state to justice.
Zelenskiy in Netherlands in push to boost Ukraine's air defences
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president, has arrived in the Netherlands as part of an ongoing push to boost his country’s air defences, Reuters reports.
Zelenskiy will meet outgoing Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte at a military air base in Eindhoven before talks starts.
The visit comes days after the US approved the possible delivery of F-16 fighter jets by the Netherlands and Denmark.
Ukraine currently operates a small air force based on Soviet standard aircraft, but it is not a match for its larger Russian equivalent.
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Russia’s robot lander the Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the moon after it had spun into uncontrolled orbit, the country’s space agency Roscosmos reported on Sunday.
Roscosmos said it lost contact with the spacecraft on Saturday after it ran into trouble while preparing for its pre-landing orbit. There had been reports of an “abnormal situation” that its specialists were analysing.
The spacecraft was scheduled to land on the south pole of the moon on Monday, racing to land on Earth’s satellite ahead of an Indian spacecraft, AP reports. It was Russia’s first Moon mission in almost 50 years.
Russian officials had hoped that the Luna-25 mission would show Russia can compete with the superpowers in space despite its post-Soviet decline and the vast cost of the Ukraine war.
Sanctions since 2014 and 2022 have hobbled the Russian space programme, cutting it off from western technology and funding.
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Here are some of the latest images of the aftermath of the reported drone attack at a railway station in Kursk, Russia:
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Former Kherson region residents struggling for money are taking advantage of a Russian scheme offering free housing, the Kyiv Post reports.
A scheme set up by the Kremlin last autumn provides housing vouchers to Ukrainians in occupied territories who are willing to accept Russian passports.
The voucher can then be swapped for a house anywhere in Russia or the occupied areas of Ukraine.
The Kyiv Post has been told Crimea has emerged as one of the most popular options, with many people apparently taking advantage of the scheme out of a sense of desperation rather than pro-Russian sentiments.
Russia seized and annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, eight years before launching its full-scale invasion of the country.
“We heard about the first cases of buying a home in this way after New Year’s,” a Ukrainian source from Crimea told the Kyiv Post. “And now my realtor friends say that today these are their main sales.”
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Russia said Ukrainian drones had struck several regions on Sunday, injuring five people and forcing two of Moscow’s airports to briefly divert flights (an update from post at 07:31).
Reuters reports:
Russia’s Kursk and Rostov regions, both of which border Ukraine, reported drone strikes while Russia’s defence ministry said it had jammed a Ukrainian drone in the Moscow region, forcing it to crash in an unpopulated area.
Russia’s aviation watchdog said it had briefly halted flights to the city’s Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports in response.
Kursk region’s governor said that five people had been injured and a fire broke out when a drone hit a railway station. Rostov’s governor said no injuries or damage had occurred.
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Russian forces shelled the Ukrainian city of Kupiansk at around 7am local time, seriously injuring a man aged around 40, Kharkiv oblast governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Sunday, the Kyiv Independent reports.
This claim could not immediately be independently verified.
Kupiansk, a town with a pre-war population of around 27,000, was seized by Russia in the early days of the February 2022 invasion before Ukrainian troops recaptured it in a lightning offensive last September.
You can read more about Moscow’s efforts to target the Kharkiv region here:
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Increasing reports of missiles striking Russia, MoD says
In its latest intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said there have been increasing reports of SA-5 Gammon missiles striking Russia, with drones regularly hitting Moscow.
Strikes hitting deep inside Russia are of strategic significance, the MoD said, as Vladimir Putin likely invaded Ukraine believing the war would have little direct effect on ordinary Russians.
Referring to the SA-5 Gammon missiles, the MoD tweeted:
“This Soviet-era 7.5 tonne, 11-metre long weapon is retired from its air defence role in Ukraine’s inventory. However, it is now apparently being employed as a ground attack ballistic missile.
“Pressure is likely to particularly fall on VKS chief of staff, colonel-general Viktor Afzalov; VKS commander-in-chief general Sergei Surovikin remains absent, suspected to have been detained in relation to the June 2023 Wagner Group mutiny.”
With the range of threats penetrating further inside Russia having increased over recent months, the leadership of Russia’s aerospace forces is likely under considerable pressure to improve air defences over the western parts of the country, the MoD added.
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Hello everyone, this is Yohannes Lowe. I’ll be running the blog until 4pm (UK time). Please do feel free to get in touch on Twitter if you have any story tips.
Here are some of the latest images coming in from Ukraine over the news agency wires:
Russian air defences jammed a Ukrainian drone flying towards Moscow early on Sunday and it crashed, Reuters has quoted the defence ministry as saying.
The Russian ministry said there were no casualties.
Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin said on Telegram that the drone had been flying in a southerly direction towards the Russian capital.
The Moscow region has been targeted in a series of drone attacks this year.
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Five hurt as Ukrainian drone hits Russian train station, says governor
A Ukrainian drone hit a railway station in the western Russian city of Kursk, injuring five people, the regional governor said early on Sunday.
Roman Starovoyt said on Telegram that according to preliminary information, the drone crashed into the roof of the train station building, after which a fire broke out on the roof.
Five people were slightly injured by glass fragments, he said.
I’ll clarify the details. All emergency services are on site.
Zelenskiy vows to retaliate over Chernihiv attack
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has vowed to hit back after seven people including a six-year-old girl were killed and 144 wounded in a Russian missile strike on a central square in the historic northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on Saturday.
The Ukrainian president said: “I am sure our soldiers will give a response to Russia for this terrorist attack. A notable response.”
Reuters reports that Zelenskiy also said in his nightly video address, delivered early on Sunday at the end of a visit to Sweden, that of the 144 people injured, 15 were children, and named the girl killed as Sofia.
Fifteen others injured were police officers, interior minister Ihor Klymenko said on the Telegram messaging app. Most of the victims were in vehicles, crossing the road or returning from church, he said.
Regional governor Viacheslav Chaus said 41 people were in hospital on Saturday.
Zelenskiy said the attack on Chernihiv, about 145km (90 miles) north of Kyiv, coincided with the Orthodox holiday of the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. People leaving church and others passing by were among those hurt when the missile hit a theatre where a meeting was taking place, Chaus said.
Law enforcement agencies were looking into how Russians became aware of the event, which Chaus said included business and community representatives but Ukrainian media reported involved drone manufacturers.
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Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine – this is Adam Fulton bringing you up to speed.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has vowed to hit back at Russia after a rocket attack on a central square in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv left seven people dead, including a six-year-old child, and 144 injured on Saturday.
The Ukrainian president said early on Sunday: “I am sure our soldiers will give a response to Russia for this terrorist attack – a notable response.”
Interior minister Ihor Klymenko said most of the victims were in vehicles, crossing the road or returning from church. The strike occurred during an Orthodox holiday.
The UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, Denise Brown, condemned the attack as “heinous”.
In the western Russian city of Kursk, meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone hit a train station, injuring five people, the regional governor said early on Sunday.
More on those stories shortly. In other news.
The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 15 out of 17 Russian drones targeting northern, central and western regions overnight into Saturday. Civilian infrastructure was damaged in at least two regions, authorities said.
Training had begun for Ukrainians to operate US F-16 fighter jets but it would take at least six months and possibly longer, the Ukrainian defence minister said. Oleksiy Reznikov’s comments on Saturday came two days after a US official said F-16s would be transferred to Ukraine once its pilots were trained.
Ukraine has begun discussing with Sweden the possibility of receiving Gripen jets to boost its air defences, Zelenskiy said on Saturday after meeting the Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson. Zelenskiy cast the talks as preliminary, saying: “Today we discussed in detail the future steps regarding the possibility of opening the subject of receiving Swedish Gripens.” He also said Ukrainian pilots had already begun training on the planes. Kristersson made no mention of Gripens in his remarks. The two leaders announced that the two countries agreed to strengthen cooperation on production, training and servicing of Swedish CV-90 infantry fighting vehicles.
Russia’s defence ministry reported a flurry of Ukrainian drone attacks on Saturday targeting the regions of Moscow, Novgorod to the north-west of the Russian capital, and Belgorod, which borders Ukraine. The ministry said nobody was hurt. The Belgorod region, more than 600km from Moscow, is a vital stop on Russian supply lines and is frequently targeted by drones and missiles.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin visited top military officials in the city of Rostov-on-Don near the Ukrainian border. The Kremlin said the Russian president listened to reports from Valery Gerasimov, the commander in charge of Moscow’s operations in Ukraine, and other top military figures at the headquarters of Russia’s southern military district.
