US President Biden announced Zelensky's promise not to use the F-16 on targets in Russia Following the G7 summit, Joe Biden said that Vladimir Zelensky promised him not to use F-16 fighter jets against targets in Russia.
According to Biden, the fighters will not be needed by the AFU during the counteroffensive - but they will help in the long term. Biden's national security aide Jake Sullivan added that the guarantees do not apply to Crimea.
Following the meeting between the Presidents of the United States and Ukraine Joe Biden and Vladimir Zelensky, the American politician announced the promise of his Ukrainian counterpart not to use F-16 fighters in a counteroffensive and against targets inside Russia.
Biden said.
Also, according to him, fighters are unlikely to participate in the upcoming counteroffensive of Ukrainian troops: "Assuming that it starts tomorrow or in a week, two, five, seven or ten ... It is unlikely that the aircraft will be involved in this context. But they will be involved if Ukraine achieves success in the short term."
In this case, Biden noted, the targets will be Russian military headquarters, which are still beyond the reach of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In addition, the US president said that the country and its allies will train Ukrainian pilots to control fourth-generation Western fighters. Among them is the F-16. He did not name other types of aircraft.
He also touched on the topic of Bakhmut (Artemovsk), saying that fighters could not help the AFU to hold the city.
When will Ukraine get the F-16
The United States has not yet made a final decision whether it will transfer F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine itself - or their allies from European countries will do it. This was stated on Sunday in an interview with CNN, assistant to the President of the United States for national Security Jake Sullivan.
"Taking into account the number of these aircraft in the stocks of our European allies, and the money that Congress has allocated to us, there are many other priorities for armaments. Perhaps we will transfer the planes to third countries, the president has not yet made a final decision," Sullivan said.
Regarding the details and delivery dates of the F-16, he noted that "the transfer schedule cannot be named," and Biden will discuss this issue directly with European allies and the Ukrainian command. "The process is underway," he stressed.
Sullivan also explained Biden's words regarding the possibility of using F-16 and other weapons on the territory of Russia: "We said that we would not allow Ukraine to use American and Western weapons for strikes against Russia. And we believe that Crimea is Ukraine."
The White House admitted that Washington could transfer the fighters to Ukraine, there is no final decision on the issue yet.
Transfer of APU fighters
Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, the United States and European countries have refused to transfer modern Western fighters to the APU. A week after the start of the special operation, NATO members who were part of the Warsaw Pact bloc and had Soviet aircraft in service handed over MiG-29 and Su-25 from their stocks to Ukraine.
The situation with Western fighters began to change in January, Dutch Foreign Minister Vopke Hustra then admitted that his country was ready to consider transferring the F-16 to Ukraine. On the same day, Zelensky said that Western partners need to hurry up with the transfer of combat aircraft to Ukraine.
On May 15, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that the kingdom's military would begin training Ukrainian pilots to fly the F-16 in the summer. Already on May 16, London and Amsterdam agreed to create an international coalition to supply these aircraft to Kiev. There is no talk of transferring the Eurofighter Typhoon, which is in service with Britain itself.
On May 19, Politico, citing a senior US administration official, reported that Biden declared the US ready to support international efforts to train Ukrainian pilots to control modern Western fighter jets, including the F-16.
On May 20, the adviser to the head of Zelensky's office, Mikhail Podolyak, said that Western countries had actually made the final decision on the transfer of the F-16:
Back in July 2022, the House of Representatives of the US Congress approved a bill to allocate $ 100 million to train AFU pilots to control American F-15 and F-16.
Mikhail Rodionov