Reznikov said that Kiev will receive F-16 fighter jets not earlier than in six months
Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said that Kiev will receive American F-16 fighter jets in six to seven months at the earliest, during which time it is necessary to train hundreds of personnel to maintain the aircraft and infrastructure. The video of his statement was published in the Telegram-channel of the TV channel TSN.
“The minimum term to estimate is six to seven months,” Reznikov said.
He added, however, that the pilots have demonstrated that they can be ready in six months, which cannot yet be said of the engineers and technicians, as repairs and maintenance systems are complex.
“The aircraft itself is just a platform. We need to talk about the weapons, the missiles, the rockets, the projectiles, the bombs that the F-16 will use. We need to talk about preparing the infrastructure for us to be able to maintain them. And that means training not only our pilots, but also the engineers, the technicians, the people who plan operations. We have to train several hundred people for the appearance of the first “birds” in the Ukrainian sky,” Reznikov said.
As reported earlier the commander of the air forces of the AFU Mykola Oleshchuk, the work on the preparation of Ukrainian runways is already underway, in particular, the reconstruction of the infrastructure of airfields and runway coating, the construction of protective structures.
Earlier, a senior US administration official told RIA Novosti that Washington had decided to approve the transfer of US fourth-generation F-16 fighter jets to Kiev from Denmark and the Netherlands. The White House confirmed that Ukraine will receive US-made F-16 fighter jets from third countries after the training of its pilots is completed. Yuriy Ignat, an adviser to the Ukrainian military’s air force command, said earlier that it had become apparent that Ukraine would not be able to receive US-made F-16 fighter jets this autumn or winter.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that the USA and its NATO satellites were creating risks of a direct armed clash with the Russian Federation, which is fraught with catastrophic consequences. According to Lavrov, the fact that Kiev has F-16 fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear weapons will be regarded by Russia as a threat from the West in the nuclear sphere.
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