Ukraine’s pilots to begin training on American F-16 fighter jets “this month” – Zelensky

Military training of Ukraine's armed forces on American F-16 fighter jets will begin this month.

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, reported this.

"F-16. The training of our Ukrainian pilots will begin this month," the president emphasized.

According to him, now it is worth working one hundred percent with the countries that have these planes, which will be able to transfer them to Ukraine after training.

"This is a powerful, complex task. Our pilots' delivery and combat use of the F-16 should occur as soon as possible. And you understand which countries we are talking about," the head of state added, addressing the ambassadors of Ukraine.

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It should be noted that the issue of providing Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets was discussed during the meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group ( in Ramstein format) in June.

After that, it became known that by July, the partners of Ukraine plan to approve the training program for Ukrainian pilots, engineers, and technicians on F-16 fighter jets; the training will take place in a specially created center in one of the European countries.

Politico says Western F-16 fighter jets may be transferred to Ukraine in early 2024.

Earlier, the prime ministers of the Netherlands and Great Britain agreed to work on forming an international coalition of fighter jets for Ukraine. Denmark joined them.

At the beginning of June, Air Force spokesman Colonel Yuriy Ihnat announced that Kyiv had selected the first groups of Ukrainian pilots for training in Britain.

On July 6, the Supreme Council of National Defense of Romania (CSAT) discussed the project of creating a pilot training center in the country to operate F-16 fighter jets, which NATO members and allied countries can use.

However, as CNN reported, Ukrainian pilots should begin training on the F-16 this month, but the training plan is still not agreed upon.