Giving Ukraine F-16s is ‘a priority’ to the US, State Dept says
The United States and its allies will work to provide F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, a US State Department spokesperson confirmed on Monday, calling it a "priority".
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Speaking at a briefing, Matthew Miller stressed that US president Joe Biden made "very clear" that the allies would train the Ukrainian military to pilot F-16s, as well as work on the provision of the aircraft to Ukraine.
"I don’t have any announcements about when or how that will happen, or what countries they’ll come from. But it is a priority for us, and we will begin to implement that in the coming months," he added.
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.
On Sunday, Mr Biden officially confirmed the US would start training Ukrainian pilots for the F-16.
Ukraine earlier signalled hopes to receive forty to fifty aircraft, the first ones preferably in the autumn.
