Following the 13th meeting of the defense contact group on Ukraine in the Ramstein format, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov announced during a briefing with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that he received commitments from Western allies regarding the initiation of training Ukrainian military personnel on the F-16.
“Today I heard very important news about the so-called ‘bird coalition’ or ‘fighter coalition.’ We have received commitments from our partners that the training will begin, and that together we will build the structure of this fighter consortium, starting with the F-16,” he said.
According to the minister, Denmark and the Netherlands will lead the training process, with other countries expected to join later.
He expressed confidence that Ukraine will have a ‘bird coalition’ since it already has a ‘tank coalition,’ ‘air defense coalition,’ ‘artillery family,’ ‘MLRS family,’ and so on.
“This means that the future forces of Ukraine will remain the eastern shield of Europe and the eastern shield of NATO,” summarized Reznikov.
On May 26th, Bloomberg reported that the Netherlands might deploy F-16s to Ukraine after pilot training.