The US wants to help train Ukrainian pilots.
(Photo: AP)
Kyiv Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky flies from one summit to the next. After his talks at the Arab League meeting in Jeddah on Friday, Zelenskyy made his way to the summit of the seven leading democratic economic powers (G7) in Hiroshima. The head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak, ended speculation on Friday evening about Zelensky’s participation in the meeting in Japan. “Yes, I can confirm that,” Yermak replied when asked whether his president was traveling to the G7 summit.
Selenski wants to meet US President Joe Biden in Hiroshima, among others. First and foremost, he wanted to talk to the US colleague about the participation of the United States in the so-called fighter jet coalition announced by Biden. “Today I can officially speak about the formation of the aviation coalition, and that means that very soon Ukraine will have everything to protect its skies, cities and citizens,” Yermak said.
US President Biden informed G7 leaders at Friday’s deliberations that the United States will support training Ukrainian pilots on fourth-generation fighter jets, including the F-16, like a senior US official official announced. First, pilots should be trained. Then it will be decided when and how many aircraft will be delivered and who will make them available, he said.
Fighter jet coalition grows
So far, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark have supported the so-called fighter jet coalition. France is also included, although the country does not have any F-16 jets. Portugal also joined in the evening, as Ukrainian media reported on a visit by Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to Lisbon.
Zelensky hailed US support for the fighter jet coalition as a “historic decision”. “This will greatly strengthen our army in the sky,” he wrote on Twitter. “I look forward to discussing the practical implementation of this decision during the G7 summit in Hiroshima.”
This is how the Handelsblatt reports on the Ukraine war:
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was also pleased that the US wants to allow Ukrainians to be trained on F-16 jets. It’s a “welcome announcement,” Sunak tweeted. Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told the Ritzau news agency Denmark was beginning talks on a concrete plan to train Ukrainian F-16 pilots.
Ukraine has been asking its western partners for months for support with western-design fighter jets. It was mostly about jets of the versatile type F-16.
Ukraine reports land gains near Bakhmut
In the Ukraine, the war did not pause on Saturday night, the capital Kiev was again shaken by violent explosions from anti-aircraft missiles. According to the city administration, falling debris caused a fire in at least one high-rise building in a district on the east bank of the Dnipro. Nothing was known about victims for the time being.
Apparently, Ukraine was able to regain territory around the town of Bakhmut.
(Photo: dpa)
The heavy fighting in the east of the country is also continuing. According to their own account, Ukrainian troops gained ground in counterattacks around the city of Bakhmut. “The enemy is continuing its assault attacks inside the city,” spokesman for Ukrainian Army Group East Serhiy Cherevatyy said on state television. The Ukrainian units, on the other hand, put pressure on the Russian troops outside the city and continued to advance there.
According to Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar, the Russian military moved several thousand soldiers to Bakhmut as reinforcements. “The enemy can’t win with quality so they try with quantity,” she wrote on Facebook. “Russian troops continue to attack at heavy casualties, disproportionately exceeding our losses.”
Series of explosions at Mariupol airport
The airport in the port city of Mariupol in south-eastern Ukraine, which was occupied by Russian troops, was shaken by a series of explosions on Friday evening. This was reported by the Russian state agency Tass, citing the local authorities. Video recordings of explosions circulated on social networks, the cause and effects of which were initially unknown. Neither the Russian nor the Ukrainian military commented on the incident.
Russian troops had captured the port city on the Sea of Azov last year after months of heavy fighting. Large parts of the city were destroyed.
More: Current news on the development of the Ukraine war can be found in our news blog