Washington is putting its weight behind its European allies’ plan to train Ukrainian pilots in using modern fighter jets, including the F-16.
The continent will oversee such training sessions in the coming months, after which NATO allies will discuss how many aircraft will make their way to war-torn Ukraine.
As reported by several media outlets, the announcement came late on Friday, May 19th. According to unidentified senior U.S. officials, U.S. President Joe Biden notified the other G7 allies during their summit in Hiroshima, Japan.
With the Biden administration’s approval, the so-called ‘fighter jet coalition’ of European countries—which, for now, includes the UK, the Netherlands, and Denmark—can begin the process of delivering F-16s to Ukraine later this year—and train Ukrainian pilots to operate the craft.
With the help of American personnel, training programs in Europe will start “in the coming weeks,” and are expected to take months to complete. U.S. officials meanwhile estimate that the “most expeditious” time needed for training, as well as the delivery of F-16s, is 18 months.
Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte, “together with my British, Danish, and Belgian colleagues,” welcomed the U.S.’ decision and said that the modalities would be worked out in the coming weeks.
“Ukraine can count on the unwavering support of the Netherlands and its international partners,” he tweeted.
In a separate tweet, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that his country would “work together with the USA and the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark to get Ukraine the combat air capability it needs. We stand united.”
This week, both Belgium and France expressed their willingness to train these pilots as soon as possible but precluded the possibility of sending their own fighter jets.
Earlier, The European Conservative had reported that while the U.S. would not prevent its partners from sending their own fighter jets to Ukraine, the U.S. itself had no intention of doing so. Only a few days ago, John Kirby, the National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communication said that sending American F-16s was “not on the [G7] agenda.”
In January, when asked by a reporter, President Biden said that the U.S. had no intention of delivering fighter jets, though it was not clear whether he meant never or just ‘not now.’ Since then, U.S. officials have repeatedly defended the decision on grounds of their F-16s being too expensive, and their technology too complicated to allow training time to be anywhere near efficient.
In addition, Washington, together with NATO ally Germany, is reluctant to supply such jets, fearing that should they go beyond the mere defense of Ukrainian territory, Moscow might be provoked to retaliate.
With its supply of Soviet-era fighter jets dwindling fast and its air defense systems (among which U.S.-supplied Patriots) proving largely ineffective against modern Russian missile technology, Kyiv is betting on Western fighter jets to regain its military advantage.
Without these, it claims that any counter-offensive—expected to take place in Spring, yet postponed due to lack of military equipment—is unlikely to succeed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, therefore, welcomed the news, since this would “greatly enhance our army in the sky. I count on discussing the practical implementation of this decision at the #G7 summit in Hiroshima.”
After a whirlwind tour in Europe to drum up more military support, on Friday the Ukrainian leader was attending a summit of the Arab League in Saudi Arabia. In his address, Zelensky appeared to try to shame some in the Arab League who, he said, had preferred to “turn a blind eye” to Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian land and to its jailing of some Ukrainians.
To hamper the Russian war effort, leaders of the G7 also issued a statement that announced new measures which would “starve Russia of G7 technology, industrial equipment and services that support its war machine.”
Yet, as the group acknowledges in their document, Western technology still finds its way to Russia through third-countries. It therefore reiterates its call to these countries to “immediately cease providing material support to Russia’s aggression, or face severe costs.”
In separate statements, the UK and the U.S. announced fresh sanctions for Russia. Later this year, the UK would legislate an import ban on Russian diamonds, copper, aluminum, and nickel, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said.
The effect on Russia will be negligible, however, since Russian exports of those commodities to the UK had already seen a fall after tariffs had been imposed.
Meanwhile, Washington is targeting Russia’s gold sector, having chosen to penalize its two major gold miners’ operations. Along with China and Australia, Russia is among the metal’s largest producers.
Yet, as with Russia’s exports to the UK, following the sanctions, Russia had largely pivoted to Asia for its gold trade. As a whole, Western sanctions on Russia have proven ineffective, as evidenced by the IMF’s January forecast, which estimates that Russia’s GDP this year will grow by 0.3% and by 2.1% in 2024.
