Western partners have not yet agreed on a plan to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets.
Source. Politico citing American sources familiar with the discussion of this issue.
Denmark and the Netherlands lead a coalition of 11 countries that support pilot training, but so far no country has publicly joined the program, the publication reminds. Ukraine is stepping up pressure on its allies to supply it with F-16s.
According to Politico, one of the training proposals involved sending Ukrainian pilots to the United States to be trained at the 162nd Air Force Wing in Arizona, where foreign partners are already being trained to fly F-16s.
However, according to two US officials and one European official, this idea has not found support, the newspaper notes.
Another plan involves sending American military pilots to Europe to train Ukrainians somewhere outside their country. According to two US officials, no final decisions have been made, Politico writes.
"Cooperation is ongoing," one of the officials said.
Background. As a reminder, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the sooner we received F-16s, the sooner we would create a new secure grain corridor. According to Kuleba, the issue of supplying Ukraine with the fighter jets has already been resolved.