Within the g7 summit which is being held this weekend in the Japanese city of Hiroshima, the president of the United States, Joe Bidenannounced on Friday to his democratic allies that he will support “the international effort” to train Ukrainian pilots with advanced combat aircraft. Including the F-16s that the Ukrainian leader, Volodimir Zelenskyhas been claiming for so long to counter the Russian air forces.
This decision, announced by anonymous US sources, comes after months of resistance, as Biden has repeated over and over again that kyiv “doesn’t need” these weapons. However, recent pressure on Washington from United Kingdom, France, Belgium and the Netherlands to get him to authorize the training of Ukrainian soldiers with these sophisticated Western fighters seems to have worked.
According to officials cited by the and Associated Pressthis is a first step for Ukraine to receive modern F-16s, manufactured by American company Lockheed Martin and much more effective than the Soviet MiG-29 jets donated by Poland and Slovakia that the Ukrainian army currently has.
Officially, Biden still hasn’t given the green light to have other countries that have these planes send them to the battlefield, but that it has supported a joint training program suggests that it will eventually cave. “As the training unfolds over the next few months, it will be decided when to supply Ukraine with these planes, which countries will supply them and when,” one of the sources said.
What does not seem so clear is that the US agree to send directly its own military equipment that it guards with such suspicion. And it is that if Biden has been so reluctant to give the F-16s, it is due, not only to the fact that it is cutting-edge technology susceptible to falling into hostile hands, but also because he fears that they could be used to attack targets on Russian territory and, therefore, potentially escalate the conflict.
I welcome the historic decision of the United States and @POTUS to support an international fighter jet coalition. This will greatly enhance our army in the sky. I count on discussing the practical implementation of this decision at the #G7 summit in Hiroshima.
— Volodimir Zelensky (@ZelenskyyUa) May 19, 2023
Thus, it seems that it will soon be repeated -although with nuances- what happened in January with advanced battle tanks when, tflush long weeks of political tug of war, Germany approved the shipment to Ukraine armored car Leopard 2. That move caused a contagion effect that led the United States to deploy its sophisticated M1 Abrams.
The news has caught Zelensky in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he has turned up by surprise to participate as a guest of honor at the annual summit of the Arab League. From there he has welcomed Biden’s “historic decision” and has announced via Twitter that he will try to “discuss the practical implementation of this decision” at the G7 summit, where he is expected to participate in person, as confirmed by the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC), Oleksii Danilov.
