British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen will this week discuss with US President Joe Biden the issue of providing Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets. This is reported by the Associated Press.
According to the publication, on Monday, June 5, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen will meet with US President Joe Biden in Washington, and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is scheduled to arrive in the US on Thursday, June 8.
"One of the things that we will pay attention to and that the president is interested in sharing his views on is Ukraine's long-term security needs," Kirby said.
"And that's where the F-16 comes into the discussion," he added.
As noted, Denmark and Great Britain, along with the Netherlands and Belgium, became key partners in the so-called "aviation coalition", which united states that decided to transfer fighter jets to Ukraine and train Ukrainian pilots to use Western combat aircraft.
Denmark has purchased dozens of American-made F-16s since the 1970s and has said it is ready to provide Ukraine with some of them. Britain is ready to train Ukrainian pilots and supports the creation of a coalition to supply fighter jets to Ukraine, but will not provide the planes itself. It does not have F-16 in service, which Ukraine would like to receive.
The United States only recently agreed to long-standing requests from Kyiv and calls from allies such as Great Britain for the need to arm Ukraine with modern Western-made aircraft to counter Russian aggression.
According to the assessment of the President's Office, the European part of the "coalition of fighter jets" already includes eight countries: Great Britain, the Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Portugal and France. Allies plan to create a special fund for the transfer of F-16 fighters.