Pilots being trained as EU welcomes F-16 jet decision for Ukraine

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg confirmed that the training decision was the exact thrust necessary towards making the jets available to Ukraine.

Romanian air force F-16 fighter jets take part in Nato’s Baltic Air Policing Mission in Lithuanian airspace on Monday (Mindaugas Kulbis/AP)

The US green light to allow Ukrainian pilots to be trained to fly F-16s has created an inexorable momentum that will inevitably take the fighter jets to the Ukrainian battlefield, the EU’s foreign policy chief has said.

“You know, it’s always the same thing, we discuss, at the beginning everybody is reluctant,” said Josep Borrell, giving the example of the long debate and initial opposition to the dispatch of advanced Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine.