The transfer of American F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine is intended to meet its long-term defense needs, and not for use in the short term. This was stated by US Department of Defense spokesman Pat Ryder during a briefing.

"The supply of F-16s to Ukraine is associated with long-term obligations to Ukraine. These fighters will not be related to the upcoming counteroffensive, "Ryder said.

Asked if he expects to send an F-16 this year, a Pentagon spokesman said he did not intend to "go into details such as timing."

"We hope to be able to start training within weeks or months, in the relatively near future. As for deliveries, again, we will keep you posted. But we are going to work closely with our allies and partners to provide Ukrainian pilots with training on the F-16, and then at some point in time we will be able to get the aircraft themselves, "Ryder said.

He clarified that the training of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the use of American fighters will take place outside Ukraine - "at facilities in Europe."

"As for more detailed information: the timing of the start of training, how and by whom these fighters will be delivered - we continue to work on this with our international partners," the US official said.

Explaining to reporters "what changes" led to US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin "recommending the provision of F-16s to Ukraine," Ryder said that at the last meeting of the contact group on the defense of Ukraine, held in April, "and shortly thereafter," Austin received several requests from countries that wanted to obtain US permission to train Ukrainian pilots to fly the F-16.

"Subsequently, he took up this issue, included it in the process of developing the policy of the National Security Council as part of the conversation about supporting Ukraine in the medium and long term and in terms of its defense needs, and everyone unanimously agreed that we should and should support this aspect. So before the summit of the Group of Seven, Secretary of Defense Austin recommended that we begin to approve allies to train Ukrainians and transfer this potential, "Ryder said.

A Pentagon spokesman did not confirm the words of the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, that the training of the Ukrainian military to fly the F-16 has already begun.

The situation around the supply of fighters

Recall that last week, Assistant to the US President for National Security Jake Sullivan said that the issue of transferring F-16 fighters to Ukraine would be resolved in the coming months. According to him, military preparation for the operation of these aircraft is an "obvious first step", which will be followed by work with allies and Kiev to determine how these fighters will be delivered in the future.

In Kiev, they expect that the West will not supply aircraft individually, but will send several dozen F-16 fighters to Ukraine at once.

  • German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov at a meeting of the contact group on the defense of Ukraine at Ramstein Air Base
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  • © Thomas Lohnes

Later, US President Joe Biden said that during a personal meeting on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the United States, together with its allies, "will begin training Ukrainian pilots on fourth-generation fighters, including the F-16" in order to "strengthen" the Ukrainian Air Force.

"They need to be in a position where these fighters, these F-16s, could make a significant difference in terms of being able to cope with what is going to happen in the future," Biden said during a press conference.

According to him, he received "categorical assurances" from Zelensky that the Armed Forces of Ukraine would not use the F-16 to "advance into the geographical territory of Russia."

According to the newspaper Politico with reference to the adviser to the head of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Yuriy Saka, the Netherlands may be the first to transfer F-16 fighters to Ukraine. According to the publication, Europe does not exclude that deliveries may start in the fall.

At the same time, the head of the Ministry of Defense of the Netherlands, Kaisa Ollongren, said that the country had received US approval for the training of Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighters. According to her, this means that the country can continue to work out plans with allies, including Denmark, "at the beginning of this training." Ollongren noted that the next step will be the issue of supplying the fighters themselves.

In addition to the Netherlands, other Western countries have also confirmed that they are ready to train Ukrainian pilots. This, in particular, was reported by the UK, which wants to start training in the summer, it was supported by Canada, the United States and France. Belgium and Poland also intend to train the military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to pilot the F-16 together with other NATO countries. In turn, Germany wants to help Kyiv not only with the training of Ukrainian pilots, but also with the necessary infrastructure for the F-16.

At the same time, on May 24, Zelensky said that Kiev had begun work on a "comprehensive concept for the development" of Ukrainian aviation "taking into account the transition to new types of aircraft." He spoke about this in his Telegram channel, adding that we are talking about a "new organizational structure", about training pilots and personnel, about the necessary infrastructure, as well as about logistics.

Russia's reaction

Moscow reacted to the plans of the West for the training and supply of American fighters. Thus, according to Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov, Washington has "toughened its approach" to resolving the issue of transferring the F-16 to the Kyiv regime. The diplomat recalled that Ukraine does not have the infrastructure necessary for the operation of such aircraft, as well as pilots and maintenance personnel.

"What will happen if American fighters begin to take off from NATO airfields, operated by foreign volunteers?" - Antonov said in a commentary.

In turn, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that the supply of Western fighters to Ukraine will not help the Armed Forces of Ukraine to radically change the situation on the battlefield.

This was also announced by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, calling the F-16 "junk", which a group of Western countries is trying to "sell under the slogans of helping Ukraine" in the hope of receiving more modern equipment "from the same United States" in return. He stressed that one of the beneficiaries in the implementation of such a scheme is the American military-industrial complex.

  • Units of the Ukrainian army are engaged in tactical exercises with foreign instructors
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  • © Andres Gutierrez/Anadolu Agency

The inability of the F-16 to change the course of the NWO was also recognized in Washington. In particular, US Secretary of the Air Force (Air Force) Frank Kendall said that sending these fighters to the Kyiv regime could be delayed at best for several months.

In turn, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, commenting on the possibility of supplying F-16s to Kiev, said that actions aimed at strengthening the Armed Forces of Ukraine lead to an increase in casualties and prolongation of the conflict.

"The more weapons are supplied, the more dangerous the world will be, and the more destructive these weapons are, the more likely the scenario of what is commonly called a nuclear apocalypse becomes," Medvedev added.

Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the supply of Western fighters is "the next stage in the escalation of the conflict and the destabilization of the situation on the European continent." As the diplomat noted, the West does not calculate the consequences in advance. In her opinion, European states "follow in the American wake" and are not aware of what "such experiments" will lead to.

"It's the turn of aviation"

As Alexei Podberezkin, director of the Center for Military-Political Studies, said in a conversation with RT, the West is implementing its idea related to the supply of American F-16 fighters in order to escalate hostilities in Ukraine.

"If at first in the West they talked about small arms, air defense systems and other similar ammunition, then they began to transfer heavy weapons: MLRS, tanks, long-range missiles. Now the turn has come to aviation, in particular to the supply of American fourth-generation F-16 fighters. These are far from the most modern aircraft, they have been in service for several decades, there are only a few dozen of them in European countries, "the analyst said.

According to Podberezkin, European countries will supply the F-16 to Ukraine in exchange for more modern equipment.

"Instead, the United States may promise fifth-generation bomber fighters, such as the F-35, which will provide the American military-industrial complex with long-term orders, and the United States will only benefit from this. Europe, on the other hand, will become even more military-technical dependent on the United States, "the expert believes.

At the same time, Podberezkin is confident that Washington "will not rush" with the supply of F-16s to Ukraine through "third countries" in Europe, leading this process.

"The fact is that it will not be possible to quickly and professionally train pilots, even those who have already fought, to operate these fighters. This will take at least 6-8 months. Not to mention the fact that there are practically no pilots with combat experience left in Ukraine. It will also take time to prepare the maintenance team for these aircraft, infrastructure, including runways and much more. All this will be under the gun of the RF Armed Forces, if we are really talking about the deployment of the F-16 on the territory of Ukraine, "the analyst said.

In turn, Konstantin Blokhin, a researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted in a commentary to RT that the decision to supply F-16 fighters to the West has been pleasant for a long time.

"But just now, Western countries have begun to prepare the information field so that the international community gets used to this decision," the expert said.

The main question now, according to Blokhin, is where the fighters will be deployed.

"They can be deployed in Ukraine, and then ours (air defense systems. — RT) The S-300 and S-400 will cope with them without any problems. Another thing is if the airfields are located in one of the NATO countries. Thus, the conflict from a hybrid one may well turn into a real war between the alliance and the Russian Federation," the analyst added.

  • Training of Ukrainian soldiers by NATO instructors
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  • © Sofiia Bobok / Anadolu Agency

Blokhin also believes that promises to supply new weapons, especially "such expensive toys as the F-16 and tanks," are necessary in order to push the Kyiv regime to launch a large-scale counteroffensive.

"As for the contradictions in the information about whether the training of Ukrainian pilots has begun or not, this reflects the political game of the United States and the West with the rest of the world. They take everyone for fools and believe that they should be taken at their word. There is no guarantee that training is actually no longer underway," the expert concluded.