Every country has right to transfer military aircraft to Ukraine, says White House
John Kirby (Photo:REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)
Any sovereign country, including NATO members, can provide Ukraine with combat aircraft and conduct pilot training for them, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said at a briefing on Feb. 10.
“These are all sovereign decisions,” said Kirby. “If a NATO nation or even a non-NATO nation wants to provide capabilities like fighter aircraft to Ukraine, that’s certainly their decision to make.”
“And one would assume that if you’re going to introduce a system into a — into a military that they have no experience with, that there’s going to have to be some training that goes along with that,” Kirby added.
“We’re doing it right now. Fort Sill, Oklahoma, we’ve got Ukrainian soldiers learning how to use a Patriot battery.”
“And outside of Ukraine, we’re helping train them on combined arms maneuver.”
Ukraine has been asking for countries to send it fighter aircraft since the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion and war.
Ukraine, in particular, has asked for F-16 fighter planes, and in recent days formally asked the Netherlands to provide them.
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