The Swedish government may instruct the country’s armed forces on Thursday to assess the conditions for a potential transfer of Swedish Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine, Swedish media revealed on Tuesday.
Talks about delivering fighter jets to Ukraine have been rife in recent months, prompting hope in Kyiv of reversing the tide of battle and compensating for its strategic disadvantage against Russia.
Now, the government is asking the armed forces to assess how the transfer of Gripen fighter jets would affect Sweden’s defence capability and how quickly the country can receive new replacement aircraft.
The Swedish Armed Forces are due to provide their response in November, at which point the government can decide whether to send the Gripen to Ukraine, Radio Ekot reported.
The media report said that Kyiv is interested in receiving a division of 16 to 18 Gripen.
At the end of August, Magdalena Andersson, the former prime minister and now leader of Sweden’s largest opposition, called on the government to approve the provision of Gripen jets to Ukraine.
However, she noted that Sweden’s accession to NATO would have to be a condition for providing Ukraine with the Gripen.
Ukrainian pilots have already commenced their familiarisation training on the Swedish fighters, and the provision of these jets was discussed during President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Sweden last month.
But Sweden’s current Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, previously said the country needs the fighters for itself and that there are no plans to transfer them to Ukraine.
“Sweden is a geographically large country, we need to defend ourselves. We are not yet in NATO,” Kristersson told TV4 last month.
(Charles Szumski | Euractiv.com)
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