Ukrainian forces were said to have pushed 2 to 4 miles into formerly occupied lands. Kyiv has in recent days warned that its long-anticipated counteroffensive is running into Russia’s air and artillery superiority.ĭespite those challenges, Brig Gen Oleksii Hromov said on Thursday that progress in its counteroffensive was being made, with Ukraine regaining control over 4o sq miles (103 sq km) since the weekend. Ukraine does not yet even have runways suitable for F-16s should Nato allies agree to provide the hardware. It will still take months to train Ukraine’s pilots, who will have previously flown mainly in Soviet-standard aircraft. Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president, is understood to have subsequently given firm commitments that the planes would be used only to target Russian forces within Ukraine. The US has control over the jets’ re-export from any country that has them in its arsenal.Īs recently as February the US president, Joe Biden, declined Ukrainian requests for the lightweight fighter aircraft. The development follows months of internal debate in Washington over the risks of Ukraine deploying F-16s to attack targets on Russian territory and potentially escalating the conflict. “The fact that training has started provides us with the option to also decide to deliver the planes and then the pilots will be ready to fly them,” the former prime minister of Norway said as he arrived at a meeting of defence ministers in Brussels.
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