Washington risks opening a rift with European allies over its reluctance to contemplate supplying F-16 fighters to Ukraine, with the issue likely to crop up at the forthcoming G7 summit in Japan.
This week, after Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s visit to Europe, the UK and the Netherlands said they would create an “international coalition” to procure the US-made F-16s and train Ukrainian pilots and crews.
Emmanuel Macron also said there were “no taboos” on Ukrainian pilots being trained in France in a TV interview on Monday – shifting the focus to the US, which has to consent to the transfer of any F-16s to Ukraine.
But the US response has ranged from negative to unenthusiastic. A state department official, when asked about F-16 supply on Wednesday, said: “We want to ensure that the assets and systems that we offer our Ukrainian partners are the most impactful, that they can use them now.”
Joe Biden has previously personally ruled out giving F-16s to Ukraine, amid arguments that it would take several months to train pilots and ground crews and that giving them to Ukraine could be interpreted as escalatory.
Zelenskiy is due to address the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, which begins on Friday. It is likely the Ukrainian president will try to raise the F-16 issue, although he will want to be careful not to embarrass Biden at the meeting of the leaders of the world’s leading economies.
Ukraine is desperate for extra air power as it plots a counteroffensive agains the Russian invasion. While its small, Soviet-standard air force remains operational, it is able to run only a dozen or so combat missions a day and cannot risk too many losses in a long war.
Yuri Ihnat, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian air force, said Kyiv would be careful with any western jets. “We are not going use the F-16s to hit targets on Russian territory. Territory of Ukraine occupied by Russia, yes. But Russian territory, no. We also need them to patrol the border and keep the Russian air force further away.”
The most obvious problem with any gift of F-16s is that it would take at least three and more likely six to nine months to train Ukrainian pilots and crews. Kyiv had been identifying a list of potential pilots and teaching them English so they could begin their tuition, Ihnat said.
Plans are being put together slowly. The incoming RAF chief, Sir Richard Knighton, told MPs that details of the scheme were yet to be finalised, while the New York Times reported that Ukrainian pilots were not being allowed by the US to train on F-16s owned by European militaries.
The attraction for Ukraine is that there are 3,000 F-16s, a jet that dates back to the late 1970s, in service in 25 countries, including several smaller European nations such as the Netherlands. But they are not used by the UK, France or Germany, which are able only to provide training and some related services.
Ben Wallace said on Wednesday during a trip to Berlin: “It’s up to the White House to decide if it wants to release that technology.” The UK defence minister said he did not think F-16s were the “magic wand” for Ukraine’s battlefield needs, given it would take so long to supply them.
On Thursday, Wallace also confirmed that Ukraine had used the long-range Storm Shadow missiles for first time since the UK’s gift of them was announced a week ago, as he signed a defence agreement with his Norwegian counterpart to ward off threats to undersea pipelines.
Wallace also expressed an interest in running Nato after the secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, steps down in autumn. On Wednesday, when asked if he would be interested in the future vacancy, he told a German news agency: “I’ve always said it would be a good job. That’s a job I’d like.”
It is unclear, though, whether a UK candidate will be able to generate enough support among the 31-country alliance, and the past two Nato chiefs, including Stoltenberg, have been former heads of government. Wallace said he was “also loving the job I do now”.
