The U.S. has greenlit the transfer of F-16 combat aircraft from Denmark and the Netherlands to Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken sent letters to his counterparts in the two countries to assure them that the United States supported the move.
“I am writing to express the United States’ full support for both the transfer of F-16 fighter aircraft to Ukraine and for the training of Ukrainian pilots by qualified F-16 instructors,” Blinken said in the letter. “It remains critical that Ukraine is able to defend itself against ongoing Russian aggression and violation of its sovereignty.”
A coalition of 11 countries is due to start training Ukrainian pilots to fly the F-16 jets this month in Denmark.
U.S. President Joe Biden, endorsed training programmes for Ukrainian pilots on F-16s in May. In addition to Denmark, a training center was to be set up in Romania.
Canada has offered to develop infrastructure to house Western fighter jets in Ukraine, since it does not have F-16s.
Blinken further wrote that the approval of the requests would allow Kyiv to take “full advantage of its new capabilities as soon as the first set of pilots complete their training”.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the transfer of F-16s to Ukraine would be considered a threat to Russia in the nuclear field. He threatened it could lead to catastrophic consequences.