COPENHAGEN: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday he was “confident” Russia would lose the war in Ukraine.
“Today, we are confident that Russia will lose this war… I’m sure that we will win because the truth is on our side,” Zelensky said in a speech outside the Danish parliament as a large crowd cheered and waved Ukrainian flags.
Zelensky made his remarks a day after Denmark, along with the Netherlands, announced they would provide American F-16 jets to strengthen Kyiv’s Soviet-era air force as it pursues a grinding counteroffensive against Russian forces in the east.
Russia warns F-16 donations will escalate war with Ukraine
“The main thing is what we prove with our victory, with our cooperation… Together we prove that life is a value, that people matter. Freedom matters, Europe matters,” the Ukrainian leader said.
“It will be a common victory. Of truth, of democracy, of our people, of our nations.”
On Sunday, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said her country would deliver 19 F-16s, six of them by the end of this year, eight next year and five in 2025.
Russia warned Monday that the delivery of the advanced jets represented an “escalation of the conflict”.
“By hiding behind a premise that Ukraine itself must determine the conditions for peace, Denmark seeks with its deeds and words to leave Ukraine no choice but to continue the military confrontation with Russia,” Russian ambassador to Denmark Vladimir Barbin said in a statement to AFP.
“Such a position pushes Ukraine into the abyss and condemns its people to new victims.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in July that Moscow would consider the F-16s a “nuclear” threat because of their capacity to carry atomic weapons.
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