
Sweden – Ukraine
For the moment, Sweden has no plans to send Swedish Gripen fighter aircraft to Ukraine, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told Swedish TV4. “Right now there are no new commitments to give Swedish aircraft to Ukraine,” he said at the weekend during a visit to Sweden by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to TV4, Kristersson had long talks with Zelensky that ended in a promise that Swedish Stridsfordon 90 tanks could be manufactured in Ukraine. “Gripen is Sweden’s pride. Such pride can be shared with Ukraine,” Zelensky said over the weekend, according to the Swedish news agency TT. It was clear, however, that the Gripen would not be flying across Ukraine in the near future.
“Sweden is a geographically large country, we have to defend ourselves, and we are not yet part of NATO,” Ulf Kristersson told TV4, adding: “It is a balancing act between what we can do without for them and what we need ourselves.” The prime minister added that Sweden is part of the F-16 coalition, in which 15 countries work together to ensure Ukraine’s air combat capacity. /ritzau/