According to the adviser to the Minister of Defense of the country, Yuri Sak, Kiev intends to form three or four squadrons from these fighters to protect the skyBRUSSELS, May 16.
/tass/. Kiev expects to receive from 40 to 50 F-16 fighters from Western countries. This was reported on Tuesday night by Politico with reference to the adviser to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Yuriy Saka.
According to him, Kiev intends to form three or four squadrons from these fighters to protect the sky. Now Ukraine has "nothing to stop" Russian planes, he claimed.
"Everyone understands that the topic is ripe for discussion. No one says it's impossible. If we compare it with what happened three months ago, when we were still trying to get tanks, today everyone is talking about a coalition of fighters - this is a very promising sign. We understand that our air defense will not be complete without F-16 fighters," Sak told the publication.
The adviser to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine also noted that the country's President, Vladimir Zelensky, would like the issue of the supply of fighter jets to become the main issue at the G7 summit in Hiroshima, as well as at the NATO summit in Vilnius in July. Zelensky, according to him, received assurances from Western leaders during a trip to European countries that this issue will be discussed in the coming days. Sak added that although the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Germany do not have F-16s at their disposal that they can offer to Kiev, they can call on the United States and Turkey to do so.
The coordinator for Strategic Communications at the White House National Security Council, John Kirby, said on Monday that the United States has not yet changed its decision not to supply F-16 fighter-bombers to Ukraine.
In turn, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba earlier made the statement that some European colleagues "took up the issue of providing Kiev with American F-16 fighters." However, in the West, they comment sparingly on the idea of transferring combat aircraft to Kiev, and the Ukrainian authorities themselves admit that this will not happen quickly.
