In a major shift in Western support for Kiev, U.S. President Joe Biden has shown a willingness to allow other countries to supply Ukraine with much-desired U.S. F-16 fighter jets in a decision Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has described as “historic.”
A senior White House official said that the US president, attending the G7 summit in Japan, assured the interlocutors of “support for a joint initiative aimed at training Ukrainian pilots in fourth-generation combat aircraft, including F-16 fighters.” “
Biden, who is leading the Western response in Russia, is facing mounting pressure to allow Lockheed Martin-made U.S. fighter jets to be sent to Ukraine, not by the United States, but by other countries that own them.
The delivery of these aircraft through another country requires the prior approval of Washington and, in particular, the permission of the Department of Foreign Affairs in order to protect US military technology.
“During the period during which the exercises will take place in the coming months, a coalition of countries participating in this effort will decide when and how many aircraft to provide and by whom,” the official said.
And this wording, which includes the word “when” and not “if” is delivered, is so far the strongest signal from the United States to transfer these aircraft, which Kyiv insistently demands.
The US statement was immediately welcomed by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, his Belgian counterpart Alexander de Croo and Dutch Defense Minister Kaisa Ollongren.
Denmark announced the training of Ukrainian pilots
Denmark also announced that it would train Ukrainian F-16 pilots.
Danish Defense Minister Trols Lund Poulsen said his country, which is replacing its fleet of F-16s with F-35 fighters, will now be able to contribute to “training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s.” “Denmark will make every effort to make this contribution a priority,” he added.
“Now we will coordinate more details with our close allies,” the minister continued in a statement, welcoming the “positive” approval from US President Joe Biden.
But he did not say whether Denmark would facilitate the delivery of some of these aircraft. The Danish Air Force has about 40 F-16 fighters, including about 30 in service.
Zelensky hails ‘historic’ decision
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that this would “greatly help the Ukrainian Air Force”, calling the US statement “historic”.
“We welcome the historic decision of the United States and the support of the international coalition for the delivery of fighter jets. This will significantly increase the capabilities of our army in the air,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter.
For months, Zelenskiy has been urging his Western allies to provide him with planes that would allow the Ukrainian army to strike Russian forces from deep, but without a magical solution to the conflict.
The senior official explained that “the training will take place outside of Ukraine in places in Europe and will continue for several months,” expressing the hope that “these training will begin in the coming weeks.”
It is noteworthy that Poland, which owns the F-16, has already stated that it will be ready to supply them to Ukraine, as well as the Netherlands, which, like a number of NATO countries, have replaced their fleet of F-16s with the latest version, this is the F-16.-35 ” .
It is currently out of the question for the United States to make this decision itself, but simply allowing other countries to do so represents a major turning point in the West’s response to the Russian military operation that began in February 2022.
