The first F-16 fighter jets the Netherlands has pledged to deliver to Ukraine are expected to arrive at a training center in Romania within the next two weeks, outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced today.

“I expect the Patriot missiles to be delivered soon” to bolster Ukraine’s armed forces this coming winter. “The same goes for the F-16s,” Rutte said in a teleconference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to a post on the X platform (formerly Twitter). “The first (F-16s) will be sent to a training center in Romania within the next two weeks,” the Dutch prime minister clarified.

Denmark, Norway and Belgium have also pledged to bolster the Ukrainian armed forces with US-made F-16s.

“What is happening now in Gaza, the terrorist attack in Israel and what followed cannot and will not distract us” from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Rutte assured Zelensky.