Ukraine and the West have acknowledged that the F-16 will be of little use — The Washington Post

American F-16 fighter jets should arrive in Ukraine within a few weeks, but Ukrainian and Western officials are urging not to expect that they will provide Kyiv with advantages against Russian forces.

This is reported by The Washington Post.

As the publication notes, Ukraine has too few aircraft, while Russia has too many air defense systems, for the F-16s to be expected to become a decisive factor or have a direct impact on the battlefield.

The first fighters will most likely be used to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense—to destroy airborne targets such as missiles and drones—rather than striking Russian ground forces or military targets near the front line.

Officials also acknowledged that at least initially, the F-16s are unlikely to fly too close to the front, meaning they will not be able to disrupt Russian aircraft.

The Washington Post believes that this “limited” role of the F-16 underscores the deepening rift between Kyiv and its Western allies. US officials have repeatedly pointed out that the fighters are unlikely to give Ukraine an advantage, to which Ukrainian officials respond with the familiar complaint: the West supplies too few weapons and does so too late.

“The decision on the F-16 is strategic. The number of aircraft is not yet strategic,” commented Volodymyr Zelensky on the delivery of the fighters.

But some analysts are even more skeptical than Zelensky. For instance, military analyst Becca Wasser notes that the transfer of F-16s to Kyiv will be more of a psychological and moral boost—partly because the battlefield conditions have changed since last year when the decision to send the planes was announced.