White House refuses to send technicians to maintain F-16s in Ukraine - media

The Wall Street Journal reports, citing US officials.

The National Security Council has considered a proposal to send civilian contractors to Ukraine to maintain F-16 fighter jets and other military weapons, but the intelligence community and others have deemed it too risky at this time, sources said.

The White House expects European countries to assume more, and possibly all, responsibility for F-16 maintenance.

"The intelligence community raised concerns over the prospect of Russia targeting American contractors in Ukraine," the US official said.

The administration has not ruled out sending American contractors to Ukraine in the future, but they will not be coming there in the near future, the newspaper writes.

The WSJ writes that while the Pentagon has said it hopes Ukrainians will be able to maintain the F-16, all countries, including the United States, rely to some extent on private companies and their personnel to help maintain the complex jet fighters.

Without civilian contractors to service the aircraft, such as repair and replace parts, Ukraine will have a hard time maintaining the operational aircraft provided by the West, journalists say.

"The Biden administration's reluctance to send US contractors to Ukraine to service US and other Western equipment reflects a larger debate over US involvement in the war there. After Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, the White House delayed sending specific weapons to Ukraine over concerns about Russian escalation, only to allow those systems to go later. However, it appears that the Department of Defence's obligation to send civilians to service US-made equipment is still a red line," the WSJ writes.

Some Pentagon officials have expressed support for sending American contractors to perform maintenance, but President Biden and his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, have been concerned that the defence department does not have adequate plans to respond if these people are attacked.

"We have not made any decisions, and we have made it clear that we are not sending U.S. troops to war in Ukraine, but the contractors of the Department of Defence are not doing work in Ukraine," the Pentagon spokesman said. 

Ukraine is expected to receive a mix of old and upgraded F-16s from the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and Belgium. 

A senior Dutch military official confirmed that the Netherlands will pay for a private contract between a civilian technical company and the Ukrainian Air Force to support the F-16s.

"We are financially supporting the Ukrainian government to enter into these contracts with private partners to see if they can support the aircraft in the future," General Onno Eichelsheim, the Dutch defence chief, told reporters in Washington. 

What is known about the F-16 crash in Ukraine

On the night of August 25-26 , Russia attacked Ukraine with missiles and drones. The long-lasting massive attack killed and injured people in different regions, and Russian enemy also struck at infrastructure. On 26 August, Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting with top miltary command. According to him, Russia launched 127 missiles of various types and 109 drones at the territory of Ukraine.

During the Ukraine 2024. Independence' forum, he said that the Ukrainian military had shot down some Russian missiles using F-16 fighter jets during a massive attack on August 26.

On 29 August, the Wall Street Journal reported that Ukraine's first F-16 fighter jet was probably downed on 26 August.

Later, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces confirmed that an F-16 fighter jet crashed while repelling a Russian missile attack, killing pilot Oleksiy Mes.