Ukraine has already sent the first teams of pilots to the United Kingdom to start training on F-16 fighter jets, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Monday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th June, 2023) Ukraine has already sent the first teams of pilots to the United Kingdom to start training on F-16 fighter jets, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Monday.
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly paid an unannounced visit to Kiev on Monday to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Shmyhal.
"Today, we are starting to talk about the support for Ukraine in the future. We have discussed the support with weapons, the restoration (of Ukraine) and (its) accession to NATO. I thanked (the UK) for unwavering support, for its leadership in the creation of the 'fighter jet coalition' and for the readiness to train our pilots. The first groups have already been sent to the UK," Shmyhal wrote on Telegram.
He stressed that the Ukrainian military was making a gradual transition to NATO standards on the battlefield, and called for the strengthening of sanctions against Russia, particularly in exports of dual-use goods.
Western countries have been supplying Ukraine with progressively heavier sorts of weapons since the start of hostilities with Russia in February 2022. An international coalition has been recently formed to provide Ukraine with US-made F-16s, the fighter jets of its choice, and training. Several countries, including the UK, have volunteered to host the training of Ukrainian pilots. Moscow has warned that by continuing to pour weapons into the conflict, Western countries only escalate it and risk full NATO involvement.
