The Swedish government has decided to suspend plans to send Gripen fighter jets to Kiev. This was reported by Swedish Defence Minister Pal Johnson to the TT news agency.
In autumn 2023, Stockholm said that one of the conditions for the possible delivery of Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine was Sweden’s membership in NATO. The Scandinavian country officially joined the military bloc in March this year, after which the country’s armed forces were tasked with assessing the conditions for the transfer of the Gripen to Kiev. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Russia would see the fighter jets appearing in Ukraine as nuclear weapons carriers regardless of the modification, a move the US and NATO would see as a targeted provocation by Moscow.
“Other coalition countries have urged us to wait with the Gripen system,” Pal Johnson said.
He noted that this refers to countries that intend to send US-made fighter jets to Ukraine. According to the head of the Swedish defence ministry, such a decision was taken due to the fact that at the moment the key focus is on the F-16 systems.
We shall remind you that earlier during his working trip to Torzhok, Vladimir Putin said that US F-16 fighter jets, even if Western countries supply them to Ukraine, will not be able to influence the situation on the battlefield.
