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EU’s foreign policy chief says F-16s supplies to Ukraine likely soon

According to Josep Borrell, the EU foreign ministers will discuss a new tranche of the European Peace Facility to provide more funding for Ukraine later on Monday

BRUSSELS, May 22. /TASS/. The European Union welcomes the G7’s decision to make things ready for F-16 supplies to Ukraine and expects that it will send the aircraft soon, the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday.

Upon arriving for an EU Foreign Ministers’ meeting, Borrell lauded sending the F-16s as "a good idea." He also said that pilots had already started training on the fighter jets. "I think the first thing to do is to proceed with pilot training, in the hope that soon we will be able to supply Ukraine with this type of weapon," he added.

According to Borrell, the EU foreign ministers will discuss a new tranche of the European Peace Facility (EPF) to provide more funding for Ukraine later on Monday.

On Sunday, US President Joe Biden announced at a news conference on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima that his country and its allies will start to train Ukrainian pilots, including on F-16s.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said earlier that Washington and its allies would discuss the list of potential senders of F-16s to Kiev in the next few months. According to the Biden administration, the combat aircraft were not on the West’s list of priority supplies to equip Kiev for a counteroffensive, he emphasized.

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