Ukraine Says Western Allies Have Already Failed On F-16 Pledge

Ukraine's leaders are once again complaining about the slowness of the West in fulfilling prior commitments related to military aid and advanced weaponry, despite the tens of billions in aid already sent.

Among the key talking points from President Zelensky and Ukraine's military commanders has been the urgent need for air superiority, in the form of US-made F-16 fighters. The US and its allies starting months ago agreed to a training program based in Europe for Ukrainian pilots. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, is now lashing out at the West for what he's describing as a "delay" in the training.

He said that a particular country made a promise to begin the training in June (without naming the country), but this never materialized. He said this in a TV interview which aired Monday.

Kubela claimed that Ukraine is set receive a first batch of F-16 fighter jets "in the first months of next year" - which would have been based on a training timeline which began in June. His words suggest this won't happen according to the original timeline.

According to his words as translated in regional media: 

"Training did not start in June. This means that the schedule begins to shift… We are now working with all relevant parties, with all countries involved in the jet coalition, to accelerate this process as much as possible," he said.

He added that:

"There was a promise to start training in June from one of the countries, now they say they continue to prepare for the start of training, they miscalculated, they need more time. But we do not have time."

The leading countries of this emerging "fighter jet coalition" which have pledged to help Ukraine included the UK, the US, and France. 

But there are significant hurdles even should the training be "expedited" - as Kiev as been wanting. We described in May, when agreements regarding Ukrainian pilot training were being made in Europe: 

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that the question of jets "was not a straightforward thing." 

A French official also addressed the serious hurdles facing any future plan to given Ukrainians jets. "Before delivering a plane, you need to train pilots. It takes a long time. Ukrainian pilots are not trained to use French systems. They don’t speak French, let alone English," an unnamed Elysée official told Politico.

Another question is whether the Ukrainians would use jets to attack border areas inside Russia's territory, as they are now doing with drones, despite Zelensky's official stance of not having "approved" such measures. However, recent Pentagon leaks show otherwise...

All of this comes against the backdrop of a much slower than expected Ukrainian counteroffensive, which at this point can even be described as essentially stalled. And yet the escalation continues...

Russia has repeatedly warned against such a move as introducing Western warplanes into Ukraine, and has already leveled the charge that NATO countries are at this point a direct party to the conflict.