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Re. Ukraine at G7: "Things are moving really fast in Japan. Faster even than we had dared hope."
US to back fighter jet training for Ukrainian pilots, official says The US will back a joint international effort to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 and other modern fighter jets, according to a western official.
Joe Biden has already informed fellow leaders attending a G7 summit in Japan of his decision, the official said. The training will begin in the next few weeks at an unspecified site in Europe and will take a few months to complete. Such training would be a prerequisite to the transfer to Kyiv of F-16s and other western warplanes.
The decision represents a dramatic shift in stance by Washington, which had previously presented the supply of F16s to Ukraine as unfeasible. The speed of the U-turn took some allies by surprise.
There had been reports that the US would give a green light for other states to make preparations to supply western fighter jets, but even close allies did not expect Biden to support direct US involvement in a training programme.
“Things are moving really fast in Japan. Faster even than we had dared hoped,” one European diplomat said.
More at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/19/us-indicates-will-not-block-european-countries-export-f-16-jets-ukraine?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Joe Biden has already informed fellow leaders attending a G7 summit in Japan of his decision, the official said. The training will begin in the next few weeks at an unspecified site in Europe and will take a few months to complete. Such training would be a prerequisite to the transfer to Kyiv of F-16s and other western warplanes.
The decision represents a dramatic shift in stance by Washington, which had previously presented the supply of F16s to Ukraine as unfeasible. The speed of the U-turn took some allies by surprise.
There had been reports that the US would give a green light for other states to make preparations to supply western fighter jets, but even close allies did not expect Biden to support direct US involvement in a training programme.
“Things are moving really fast in Japan. Faster even than we had dared hoped,” one European diplomat said.
More at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/19/us-indicates-will-not-block-european-countries-export-f-16-jets-ukraine?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
