Duda: Poland ready to support training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16s

Poland is willing to support the process of training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets, although the country does not possess a sufficient number of such aircraft to transfer any to Ukraine.

Polish President Andrzej Duda said this on Tuesday, speaking at the Council of Europe summit in Reykjavik, Ukrinform's own correspondent reports.

According to Duda, Poland is at the absolute forefront of assisting Ukraine, in particular by handing over 300 tanks and "almost all MiG-29s", which Kyiv has been requesting from Warsaw since the outset of Russia's full-scale aggression. He emphasized that in terms of the scope of military aid to Ukraine, Poland is in the top three after the USA and Great Britain.

“However, we have a relatively small number of F-16s. We are ready to support the process of training Ukrainian pilots, I spoke about this with the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of National Defense (Mariusz Blaszczak - ed.), and we are ready to get involved in this. At the same time, the number of F-16 aircraft we have does not allow us to talk about handing any of them to Ukraine," Duda emphasized.

The president of Poland noted that Warsaw was ready to systematically transfer MiG-29s to Kyiv. He admitted that there are "certain issues" in this regard since some of the aircraft of this type operate according to NATO standards and are currently performing the Air Policing mission.

"But we promised that we would gradually hand over the planes, and we are delivering," Duda emphasized, adding that in this way Poland is part of the coalition providing military support to Ukraine.