The United States is giving in to Ukraine’s persistent pleas and promising to approve the delivery of much-sought-after F-16 jets to the embattled country as soon as pilot training is completed.
It is an American official who announces this significant turn in the American approach, which until now has been reluctant to cross the red line of supplying sophisticated warplanes, for fear that it would increase the risk of a collision with Russia.
As it is known, the planes will be sent from Denmark and the Netherlands, countries that are preparing the program to train Ukrainian pilots. It is not clear when the training might start and how long it might last.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken sent a letter to counterparts in Denmark and the Netherlands assuring them that any transfer of the planes would have the full support of the Biden administration and would be delivered quickly when pilot training was completed.
NATO member states Denmark and the Netherlands have led the international effort to train pilots and provide Ukraine with the much-sought-after US-made F-16 jets.
However, Kiev does not expect to use the planes this fall or winter. The developments are expected to anger Russia, which has warned NATO that it is increasingly at risk of engaging in direct conflict with Moscow.
Closely allied in this rhetoric is Belarus, whose president recently said he would use nuclear weapons in the event of foreign aggression. Amid rising tensions around the country’s borders with NATO states, Alexander Lukashenko warned that if provoked by Poland, neighboring Lithuania and Latvia would respond with everything they had, including nuclear weapons.
