Europe takes the war to Putin: Netherlands will allow Ukraine to use its F-16 jets to carry out strikes in Russia after US allowed its missiles to strike targets over the border

By Sabrina Penty

The Netherlands intends allow the Ukrainian air force to use its 24 F-16 fighter jets to carry out strikes in Russia, shortly after President Biden gave Ukraine the green light to hit some of Putin's targets with US weapons. 

This was confirmed by Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren who, in an interview with Politico this weekend, said there was not a 'Belgian-style restriction', referring to Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo's warning that Kyiv will not fly the F-16 jets that come from Belgium into Russian airspace. 

Also, Dutch Foreign Minister Hanke Bruins Slot said this decision does not require permission from the US, even though it produces F-16s. 

The use of the planes is also not limited to the border region near Kharkiv, as is the case for US weapons.  

Ollengren was among the senior officials who met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, an independent think tank, which is attended by defense ministers, permanent heads of ministries and military chiefs. 

'We are applying the same principle that we have applied to every other delivery of capabilities, which is once we hand it over to Ukraine, it's theirs to use,' said Ollongren.  

 'We only ask them to comply to international law and the right to self-defense as stated in the U.N. Charter, which means they use it to target the military goals they need to target in their self-defense,' Ollongren added.

The F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic multi-role fighter aircraft originally developed for the United States Air Force. 

This comes a few days after US President Joe Biden gave Ukraine permission to use American-supplied weapons to strike Russian targets near the Kharkiv region. 

 The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had previously suggested that the US was contemplating this decision, given the changing dynamics on the battlefield in Ukraine. 

Until now, the US had prohibited Ukraine from using US weapons, like ATACMS missiles, to target Russian territory.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also suggested that the 'time has come to consider whether it will be right to lift some of the restrictions.'

'If they cannot attack military targets on Russian territory, then it ties one hand of the Ukrainians on their back and makes it very hard for them to conduct defense,' Stoltenberg said at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Blinken chose his words carefully during a meeting with with Moldova's president and was keen to make clear the US neither encouraged nor enabled strikes on Russian territory.

He said Ukraine 'has to make its own decisions about the best way to effectively defend itself. We're going to make sure that it has the equipment it needs to do that.'

'Another hallmark of our support for Ukraine over these, now, more than two years has been to adapt as conditions have changed and the battlefield has changed, as what Russia does has changed in terms of how it's pursuing its aggression and escalation,' Blinken said.

Officials within the Biden administration have said that a shift in policy is being considered but that a decision has not yet been made.

Russia's foreign ministry had warned in September 2022 that should the US become involved it would 'cross a red line' and be considered a 'direct party to the conflict' in the eyes of the Kremlin if it started supplying longer-range missiles to Kyiv.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned of the threat of a global conflict if Kyiv's Western allies allow it to use weapons they have supplied to strike inside Russia, something Ukraine's government is urging its partners to permit.

The US, which is Kyiv's most important supplier of weaponry, passed a $61 billion aid package in April following months of delay that exacerbated shortages of artillery shells.

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