France ‘opened doors’ to train Ukrainian fighter jet pilots, Macron says

France is ready to start training Ukrainian pilots on modern fighter jets, president Emmanuel Macron has announced.

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In an interview with French TV channel TF1 aired on Monday, Mr Macron said Paris has "opened the door to train pilots" from Ukraine.

"And this [comes] with several other European countries that are ready. I believe that discussions are underway with the Americans. The training can start now," he added.

The French leader, however, did not specify on which aircraft that training would take place.

Sending Ukraine fighter jets is, however, not on the table now, Mr Macron said.

"We are starting for the moment [with] training. In any case, it would be a theoretical debate [to send aircraft]. We need to start training now."

Earlier, it was revealed that the United Kingdom would start training Ukrainian combat pilots in the summer, as well as work with other countries on providing F-16 jets.

Ukraine has long been asking for modern fighter jets, claiming that its current Soviet-era aircraft are not capable of countering offensives of Russian forces and are too old to be combat-effective.

While such deliberations are known to be taking place, no country has so far committed to delivering Ukraine modern aircraft.