At a meeting in Kyiv with British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal thanked London for training the pilots.
    Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky has long called for Western fighter jets, such as American F-16s, to repel the Russian invasion of his country. Last month, the United States finally gave the go-ahead for Ukrainian pilots to be trained to fly F-16s.
    The Netherlands and Denmark have decided to lead a European coalition for the training, including Belgium.
Kyiv hopes to obtain 48 F-16s.