United States Announces Approval Of Ukrainian F-16 Training Coalition
The United States announced on Friday that it would approve the efforts of an international coalition to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter aircraft, with the decision made by President Joe Biden during the ongoing G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan.
According to separate statements by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the F-16 coalition is currently composed of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark. Rutte’s statement said that the details of the arrangement will be finalized in the coming weeks, as the United States “stands ready” to greenlight training efforts. “Ukraine can count on the unwavering support of the Netherlands and its international partners”, added Rutte.
Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky, who is en route to attend the G7 summit, tweeted that he welcomed the “historic decision” by Biden to support the coalition. “I count on discussing the practical implementation of this decision at the G7 summit in Hiroshima”, added Zelensky.
Acknowledgement of the move follows a report by CNN earlier on Friday that Biden had told G7 leaders that the United States would support efforts to train Ukrainian pilots on advanced Western aircraft like the F-16. A senior administration official told the news network that the training programs would likely happen entirely in Europe, with US personnel supporting allies in their work to retrain Ukrainian pilots on Western aircraft.
Mirroring previous comments by Washington that its focus on ammunition and armored vehicles over Kyiv’s requests for F-16s was to meet the immediate needs of the Ukrainian military, the official told CNN that “discussions about improving the Ukrainian Air Force reflect our long-term commitment to Ukraine’s self-defense”.
Earlier this week, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had said that he expected “everything to happen very quickly” once the coalition was officially formed. Kuleba’s comments had followed Zelensky’s meeting with Sunak in the UK on Monday, with the UK government announcing ahead of the meeting that it would be cooperating with the Netherlands to form a coalition supplying Ukraine with “combat air capabilities”.