By KYIV. Nov 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian Armed Forces cannot send enough pilots to F-16 training because “they are fighting.”
“Training missions have started. So far, in my opinion, they are minimal. We want to speed this up, we need pilots for this,” he said in an interview with African journalists.
“We are at war. This means that our pilots are now fighting. And this means that you must take some of them, tear off this part of the pilots and send them to study on aircraft of a different class. Therefore, the military must manage this balance specifically so as not to lose the fleet that we have,” the president said.
Noting that “Russia has complete advantage in the skies,” Zelenskyy said Ukrainian aviation is “at least some kind of deterrent.”
He also noted the need to strengthen air defense at the front. “The air defense, which is at the front, on the battlefield, in order for your troops not to stand still, but to move forward, this means that it is necessary to reduce the presence of Russia in the sky, in our sky. Can… install air defense, and they themselves will be afraid,” the president said.
