Sweden Seeks to Profit by Building Gripen Jets in Ukraine
Saab JAS 39 Gripen (Griffin) fighter aircraft taxi out for start during the NATO exercise Loyal Arrow outside Lulea in northern Sweden, on June 10, 2009
The Sweden-Ukraine agreement on the Gripen warplanes could become Stockholm’s biggest aircraft export order yet.The Swedish defense group Saab is ready to open a final-assembly plant in Ukraine as part of a proposed deal for the Zelensky regime to buy up to 150 Gripen fighter jets, Chief Executive Micael Johansson told the Financial Times.Volodymyr Zelensky and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson earlier signed a letter of intent for the purchase of Gripen fighters, but with financing yet to be finalized.One option includes the use of “some of Russia’s frozen assets,” according to the Saab chief executive.Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova warned of a harsh response to the EU’s possible use of the assets.She noted that the Russian Foreign Ministry is aware of the West’s attempts “by hook or by crook to fit some legal framework to the theft” of the assets.
WorldEU Unable to Sustain Ukraine Aid on Scale Needed to Try to Defeat Russia – Former UK Envoy20 June, 04:28 GMT
