The presidents did not specify the exact number of the aircraft or the time of delivery. But they shared their decisions regarding the exercises of Ukrainian pilots and the limits of the use of fighters.
Ukraine will receive American fighters from its F-16 partners. This was announced by Chairman Volodymyr Zelensky, as is known from the OP’s May 21 broadcast recording.
“We’ve worked really long and hard politically with our partners to achieve the desired result – strengthening our skies outside of air defense,” he said.
The President thanked the United States and other partners for military assistance, including air defense systems. However, he stressed that these funds are still not enough.
“We have a training mission ahead of us today. That’s the first step. Then we have a few months available to train our pilots. We will try to make them as experienced as possible to shorten the training period,” said Zelensky.
The leader did not say from which countries and how many fighters he could provide. He also did not comment on the terms of aviation delivery.
“I can’t tell you how many planes we can get now. I can’t tell you exactly when it will happen. But we’re going to accelerate because that’s important to us – we’re losing people every day,” Zelensky said. explained.
US President Joe Biden also commented on the discussion of providing the F-16. This is known from the recording of the broadcast of the briefing on the results of the G7 summit in Japan, released on May 21 by the Voice of America.
“I told Zelensky that Ukrainian pilots will be trained on fourth-generation aircraft, including the F-16, to support Ukraine’s self-defense capability,” the American leader said.
Biden said the deployment of the F-16s during the planned UAF offensive is unlikely, but would be necessary if successful.
The President of the United States said that he received assurances from Zelensky that American fighters would be used only for the liberation of Ukrainian territory. His colleague assured the defenders that they would not cross the border of the Russian Federation with aircraft supplied by the partners.
Recall that Vladimir Zelensky and Joe Biden also commented on the situation in Bakhmut.
On May 21, Yuriy Ignat, spokesman for the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said that Ukraine will receive several dozen F-16 fighters. According to him, “no one will transfer planes piecemeal.”
Source: Focus
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