On July 10, 2024, leaders from Denmark, the Netherlands, and the United States  published a joint statement during the current NATO summit in Washington, declaring that the deployment of US-manufactured F-16 fighter planes to Ukraine is going through.

“The Danish and Dutch governments are in the process of donating American-made F-16s to Ukraine, with the support of the United States,” the statement highlighted. “The transfer process for these F-16s is now underway, and Ukraine will be flying operational F-16s this summer.”

The three leaders announced that Belgium and Norway have also promised to send jets. Per previous reports, the four European countries have promised to supply Ukraine with roughly 60 F-16s, but the training process has been a slog, with just a few pilots projected to be prepared for the summer of 2024.

As the  F-16 transfer appears to be going through, Russia has ramped up attacks on Ukrainian airfields, destroying several of Ukraine’s aircraft — largely Soviet era models. Ukrainian officials have stated that to protect their F-16s, they might store several of the planes abroad, which could make the NATO bases storing them potential targets for  Russian military forces.

The F-16 transfer represents a notable escalation of NATO involvement in the proxy war. After all, this will be the first time Ukraine is gifted Western-manufactured fighter jets. Russia views this move as an uncalibrated provocation and raises the point that F-16s are able to carry nuclear weapons. 

On July 9, when the NATO summit kicked off, the leaders of Germany, the Netherlands. Romania, the US and Ukraine published a joint statement on a plan for the Western-military alliance to supply dozens of new air defenses.

“Today, we are announcing that, collectively, we are providing Ukraine with additional strategic air defense systems, including additional Patriot batteries donated by the United States, Germany, and Romania; Patriot components donated by the Netherlands and other partners to enable the operation of an additional Patriot battery; and an additional SAMP-T system donated by Italy,” the statement highlighted.

The leaders also noted that in the forthcoming months, “The United States and partners intend to provide Ukraine with dozens of tactical air defense systems, including NASAMS, HAWKs, IRIS T-SLM, IRIS T-SLS, and Gepard systems.”

The more military aid that is sent to Ukraine, the more likely this conflict will end with Russia pursuing a maximalist end goal of completely destroying the Ukrainian state as we know it. 

The only road to peace is one where the US halts all military aid to Ukraine and pushes for negotiations instead.