Home › Politics › Ukraine's first F-16s and a Slovak diesel threat
Ukraine's first F-16s and a Slovak diesel threat
Summary
A look back at two developments from the days around 4 August 2024, one on military aid and one on energy.
What did Kyiv gain on 4 August 2024? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that the country had received its first F-16 fighter aircraft from NATO allies, a delivery that formed part of the military aid to Ukraine during the Russian invasion.
A few days earlier, on 31 July 2024, a separate dispute over energy had flared up with a neighbour. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico threatened to suspend Slovakia's diesel exports to Ukraine if the Ukrainian government continued to suspend pipeline oil transport from the Russian oil company Lukoil.
Slovakia claimed the suspension was causing a national energy crisis. The warning made Lukoil's oil transit a point of friction between Bratislava and Kyiv in the days before the F-16 announcement.
Taken together, the two developments showed Ukraine receiving fresh military support from NATO allies while also facing a threat over fuel supplies from a neighbouring state.
