US says where Ukrainian pilots to be trained on F-16

John Kirby, US National Security Council Coordinator, said the training will take place in Denmark and Romania, but other locations are also being considered.

“The dates, the locations, the length of the syllabus, all of that is still being worked out.

And I can’t give you a day on the calendar and say, “Well, it’s going to start in Romania here, and it’s going to start in Denmark there.”  I just don’t know.  We’re still working that out.  But we know it’s going to be in Denmark and Romania. 

And there could be other sites as well,” Kirby said.

In addition, he explained that Ukrainian pilots need to take English language courses in the UK to be able to fly F-16s.

In this regard, he also emphasized that everyone is taking this task "with an appropriate sense of urgency" to train Ukrainian pilots as soon as possible.

F-16 fighter jets for Ukraine

On May 21, US President Joe Biden approved the training of Ukrainians on F-16s. Volodymyr Zelenskyy assured that Ukraine would not use these aircraft to strike at Russian territory.

On May 25, at a meeting in the Ramstein format, it was announced that the coalition to train the Ukrainian Armed Forces with F-16s would be led by Denmark and the Netherlands and would include four other countries: Norway, Belgium, Portugal, and Poland. 

On June 14, one of the leaders of the "aviation coalition," the Netherlands, announced that training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16s would begin in the coming months.

Denmark and the Netherlands plan to start training Ukrainian pilots this summer and will establish a training center in an Eastern European NATO country.

Following the Ramstein meeting, Ukrainian Defense Minister Reznikov expressed confidence that we would have a "bird coalition."

On July 6, media reported that Romania would become a base for training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says that the first F-16 fighter jets are likely to fly in Ukraine's skies by the end of March 2024.

On Sunday, July 16, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that the US would not postpone training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets, and Biden allowed European countries to start training.

On July 22, Sullivan also said that Ukrainian pilots would begin training on F-16s in the next few weeks.