Great Britain and the Netherlands agreed to create an international coalition to provide Ukraine with F-16 fighters

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte have agreed to create an international coalition to purchase fighter jets for Ukraine. This is reported by BBC Russian Service, referring to a statement by the British government.

“The [UK] Prime Minister and Prime Minister Rutte have agreed that they will work to build an international coalition to provide Ukraine with combat air capability, providing support in everything from training [pilots] to purchasing F-16 fighter jets,” the statement said. statement issued after the meeting between Sunak and Rutte at the Council of Europe summit in Iceland.

After meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on May 15, Rishi Sunak said he supported the proposal to create a "coalition of fighters." The UK is ready to start training Ukrainian pilots, but will not transfer fighters itself, since it does not use the F-16s that Ukraine is asking for.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said earlier in May that the Dutch government was discussing F-16 supplies to Ukraine with Denmark, the UK, the US and "certain parties" in Europe.

• Until now, Western countries have refused to provide Ukraine with modern fighters. Slovakia and Poland announced in March that they would hand over old Soviet MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine.