COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Thursday he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had discussed Kyiv’s interest in Saab’s JAS Gripen fighter jets at a meeting of European leaders in Copenhagen.
“We discussed the continued cooperation on developing Ukraine’s future defence, including air defence, and Ukraine’s interest in Gripen fighters,” Kristersson posted on the X platform.
He told Reuters the jets would not be donated, and that Ukraine was considering whether its future air defence and fighter capabilities should consist of Gripen or another system.
“They obviously need to build up a stronger air defence in the long term. Even post-war defence,” he said. “The financing part of that is a fundamental thing, for which there is not a solution for now.”
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Anna Ringstrom, editing by Louise Rasmussen and Kevin Liffey)
