Britain to start training up to 20 Air Force pilots in August

United Kingdom will begin training two dozen Ukrainian pilots in August 2023, announced Minister of State for the Armed Forces James Heappey, the press service of the British Parliament reports.

When asked by British MP Luke Pollard how many Ukrainian pilots of the Armed Forces have been trained in Britain since February 2022, Heappey replied: "In August, Britain will start basic training for 20 Ukrainian pilots."

Earlier, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced that the training schedule of Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets would be shifted, which is likely to lead to a shift in the date of handing over the fighter jets to Ukraine. Initially, the allies promised that the training would start in June 2023 – in this case, Ukraine could have received aviation in the first months of 2024.

On July 1, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that some partners are delaying the issue of training Ukrainian pilots on the F-16 and the subsequent transfer of aviation to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as there are still no schedules for training missions.