Trump is in talks with Russia to end the war

[putnam6]

The F-16s are coming from members, not the U.S. and they are not disclosing the timeline of the shipments so Putin won't be prepared for it.

Not sure how many Ukraine received in the first batch, but it doesn't sound like the rest are anywhere close to being shipped everything I see so far says late 2025, unless you have other sources.

Not to mention other countries can't sell American F-16s without tacit approval from the US, it remains to be seen if the Trump administration will give even that approval.

Common logic suggests Ukraine will have to look to other EU options in the near term


https://www.19fortyfive.com/2025/02/ukra...e-dilemma/

Article Summary: Belgium’s promised delivery of 30 F-16 fighter planes to Ukraine has been delayed until at least late 2025 due to setbacks in F-35 production.
-With Belgium receiving only one F-35 so far instead of the expected fleet, it cannot yet part with its aging F-16s.
 
Key Point #1 – Additionally, Ukraine faces a shortage of trained pilots, raising concerns about the effectiveness of adding more aircraft. Spare parts for Belgium’s aging F-16s are scarce, further complicating the transfer.
Key Point #2 – As a result, Ukraine is increasingly focusing on integrating U.S. weapons onto its existing MiG-29s and Su-27s, offering a more immediate and viable combat solution.

 
Belgian F-16 Fighters for Ukraine Delayed Due to F-35 Late DeliveriesOn February 20, Belgium Air Force Chief of Staff General Frederik Vansina gave an interview to the Belgian daily Le Soir, informing that the 30 Belgique F-16s that were promised to Ukraine have now been delayed until at least the end of 2025.
“We now hope to start delivering the first aircraft [to Kyiv] by the end of this year,” Vansina said.
The reason given is that the inability of Brussels to part with the F-16s is a domino-like effect from the serial delays in the production schedule for the F-35A aircraft.

 
“The presence of combat aircraft makes no sense if there’s a shortage of pilots.”
Former NATO-nation pilots who spoke with 19FortyFive agreed that “more aircraft are nice to have, but not if they are sitting around collecting dust.” 
They also note that maintenance issues still exist even if the aircraft are not flown regularly. These problems develop and can add significant expense to keeping them in operation.
One of the pilots who briefed the issue of F-16s for Ukraine last year explained that “the [F-16] aircraft is extremely capable and it can perform all number of missions. But in order for a pilot to be proficient in its operation creates a serious training burden that many nations find difficult to bear.”
This training issue raises part of the argument that a less complicated aircraft like the Swedish JAS-39C/D version of the Gripen is more straightforward to train pilots for and better answers the basic mission requirements that Ukraine currently needs.
“The Gripen is a quartet, but the F-16 is a symphony,” explained one European defense analyst based in London – using the analogy to explain the difference in the two aircraft. “The symphony contains of course every kind of instrument you can imagine, but how often do you need to use some of them in order to perform very basic compositions of music.”