The Joseph Biden administration is facing renewed and intensified pressure to allow the transfer of F-16s to Ukraine, Politico reports. It is the complex work of friendly European governments, bipartisan US legislators and Ukrainian leaders. This week, Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled across Europe demanding more aid, including planes.
London announced the creation of an international coalition of countries involved in the purchase of F – 16 for Kyiv. Under the agreement, the UK said it would soon start training Ukrainian pilots to operate modern fighter jets. Belgium soon followed suit, saying it could also train pilots.
The Biden administration remains on course to transfer the Lockheed Martin F-16 to Kiev. But perhaps Washington is preparing to allow other countries that use F-16s to send their own planes to Ukraine. Officials say they remain open to allowing other countries to send their American-made planes, the article said.
Biden’s team has suggested postponing talks about sending F-16s until after the conflict. But some European allies have already started moving forward with supplying advanced fighter jets to Kyiv. Although the White House has repeatedly rejected the possibility of sending US Air Force F-16s to Ukraine, it has never ruled out approving the transfer of fighter jets to Kiev from another country. .
For the moment, it does not seem that a European government has officially asked the United States to send their combat planes to Ukraine. But countries are likely to delay the move until the next NATO summit in Vilnius in July. Biden, along with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, are scheduled to meet with their counterparts from across the NATO alliance.
Previously, the White House had refused to supply Kyiv with ATACMS long-range missiles. At the same time, the UK began supplying long-range Storm Shadow missiles to the Kyiv regime.
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