KYIV - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday confirmed that long-awaited F-16 fighter jets have arrived in Ukraine. "F-16s in Ukraine. We ensured this," Zelensky said in a post on Telegram.

The Ukrainian pilots have already started using the F-16 aircraft, he said, not specifying how many jets were supplied to Ukraine.

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Zelensky thanked Denmark, the Netherlands, the United States and Ukraine's other partners for accepting Kyiv's request for F-16s. Western media reported that Ukraine received the first 10 F-16 fighter jets on the last day of July.

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Ukraine's top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi welcomed the arrival of the jets and thanked the president and other officials for working "24/7" to secure them. Their arrival, he said, would save the lives of Ukrainian soldiers.

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Built by Lockheed Martin, the F-16s had been on Ukraine's wish list for a long time because of their destructive power and global availability. They are equipped with a 20mm cannon and can carry bombs, rockets and missiles.

It remains unclear what missiles the jets are equipped with. A longer range of missile would allow them to have a greater battlefield impact, military analysts say.

With Reuters inputs