The United States gave the green light to send F-16 warplanes to Ukraine to fight Russian forces as soon as the troop training program was completed. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has sent letters to his counterparts in Denmark and the Netherlands, the two countries spearheading the training of Ukrainian pilots, reassuring that Washington will speed up the approval process for the transfer of F-16s to Ukraine when the military is ready. .
Volodymyr Zelensky has been calling on Western allies for months to supply US-made jets against Russia’s air superiority and support the counteroffensive against the invasion at Vladimir Putin’s behest. President Joe Biden’s administration was reluctant and feared triggering a direct confrontation between the NATO alliance and Moscow. However, in a diplomatic turn, a coalition of the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium and Poland received US approval for the deployment of the aircraft at the G7 summit in May. “The government has said several times that donation is a natural step after education. We are discussing this with our closest allies and I hope we can be more concrete about this soon,” Ritzau told Danish Defense news agency. Minister Jakob Ellemann-Jensen.
He said an 11-nation coalition will begin training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets over Denmark later this month, and he hopes to see “results” from the training by early 2024. Defense, the Netherlands currently has 24 operational F-16s that will be retired by mid-2024. A further 18 jets are currently up for sale, 12 of which are temporarily sold. Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said on national television that Kiev will not be able to use Lockheed Martin’s US-made F-16 warplanes in the coming fall and winter. US officials have said privately that, given Russia’s air defense systems and the contentious weather conditions over Ukraine, F-16 jets will not be of much help in Ukraine’s current counterattack and will not reverse the situation when they arrive.
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Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
