Ukrainian fighter pilots are being trained to fly F-16 jets, Nato’s secretary general has revealed, as Kyiv claimed further incremental progress in its counteroffensive against Russian forces in the east and south of Ukraine.
Nato allies have yet to agree on delivering the so-called fourth-generation US fighters to Ukraine, but Jens Stoltenberg said that the training of Ukrainian personnel was under way.
“The fact that training has started provides us with the option to also decide to deliver the planes and then the pilots will be ready to fly them,” the former prime minister of Norway said as he arrived at a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels.
The development follows months of internal debate in Washington over the risks of Ukraine deploying F-16s to attack targets on Russian territory and potentially escalating the conflict. The US has control over the jets’ re-export from any country that has them in its arsenal.
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As recently as February, US president Joe Biden declined Ukrainian requests for the lightweight fighter aircraft.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy is understood to have subsequently given firm commitments that the planes would be used only to target Russian forces within Ukraine.
It will still take months to train Ukraine’s pilots, who will have previously flown mainly in Soviet-standard aircraft. Ukraine does not yet even have runways suitable for F-16s should Nato allies agree to provide the hardware.
Kyiv has in recent days warned that its long-anticipated counteroffensive is running into Russia’s air and artillery superiority.
Despite those challenges, Brig Gen Oleksii Hromov said on Thursday that progress in its counteroffensive was being made, with Ukraine regaining control over about 100 sq km since the weekend.
Gen Hromov told journalists that his troops had benefited from the provision of MiG-29 planes from Poland and Slovakia and claimed, without providing evidence, that Russian soldiers were deliberately inflicting wounds upon themselves to avoid battle.
“The Ukrainian army has gained considerable experience and skill on the battlefield this year, and we are ready and will continue to fight until the complete liberation of our own territories, even with our bare hands. With heavy weapons from our allies, this will happen faster.”
Ukraine’s army is said to have advanced by 3km near the village of Mala Tokmachka in the Zaporizhzhia region and by up to 6km near a village south of Velyka Novosilka in Donetsk.
The Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said: “There is a gradual but steady advance of the armed forces. At the same time, the enemy is putting up powerful resistance [on the southern front]. The enemy is pulling up additional reserves and is trying with all its might to prevent the advance of Ukrainian forces.”
Moscow has widely disseminated video footage of US Bradley armoured vehicles and German-made Leopard tanks being hit by Russian fire.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said Ukraine retained sufficient firepower for the battle to come. “I think the Russians have shown us that same five vehicles about 1,000 times from 10 different angles,” he said. “But quite frankly, the Ukrainians still have a lot of combat capability, combat power.
“This will continue to be a tough fight, as we anticipate it, and I believe that the element that does the best in terms of sustainment will probably have the advantage at the end of the day.”
The US chair of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Mark Milley, said it was too early “to put any estimates” on how long the Ukrainian counteroffensive would last. “This is a very difficult fight; it is a very violent fight and it will likely take a considerable amount of time and at high cost,” he said.
Russian military bloggers have claimed as many as 100 Russian troops gathered for a motivational speech near Ukraine’s eastern frontline may have been killed in a strike by a US-made Himars rocket system earlier this week, although Ukrainian officials declined to comment.
Russian missiles hit two industrial facilities in the central Ukrainian city Kryvyi Rih early on Thursday, city mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said, with an drone attack also reported in Odesa.
[ Ukraine urges West to tighten Russia sanctions after deadly Odesa airstrikeOpens in new window ]
In the southern port city of Odesa, authorities said air defences on Thursday downed all 18 Russian drones that approached the region. Authorities in Russia-controlled Crimea also reported a drone attack, saying they had downed nine Ukrainian drones.
Meanwhile, Russia has said it intends to press the United Nations Security Council again for an international investigation into explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines last September, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
Unexplained explosions ruptured both Nord Stream 1 and the newly built Nord Stream 2 pipelines, carrying gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea.
Russia has repeatedly said the West was behind the blasts. The West and Ukraine have denied involvement.
“We will now bring the UN Security Council back to an examination of this issue,” Ms Zakharova told a regular news briefing.
She said the three western permanent members of the Security Council – the United States, Britain and France – had previously blocked Russia’s efforts to secure a “transparent” investigation of what happened to the pipelines.
Russia and China are also permanent members of the UN body.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday it was studying all available information about the attacks.
In recent months, US newspapers including the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have reported that the US Central Intelligence Agency knew of a Ukrainian plot to attack the pipelines.
Kyiv has denied Ukraine attacked them.
Some US and European officials initially suggested Moscow had blown up its own pipelines, an interpretation dismissed as idiotic by Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, a close Putin ally, said on Wednesday there was no reason for Moscow not to destroy its enemies’ undersea communication cables, given what he said was western complicity in the pipeline blasts. – Agencies