Infrastructure is a main concern every time somebody looks into buying some F-16.

(But, of course, not where the jets will land. Other kinds of infrastructure.)

Are there any non-VTOL jets that can actually take off from a carrier without any assistance ? I thought they were either catapulted or the runway had to be sloped upwards (and possibly longer than 500m iirc)

Any jet is not the same as, like, an F-35. And even then you need to equip a lot more jets than western Donbas would usually see.