Portugal Won’t Send F-16 Fighter Jets to Ukraine, But Willing to Train Pilots: Foreign Minister

The Portuguese government is not considering sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, said Foreign Minister João Gomes Carvinho. According to him, Lisbon needs the planes to fulfill both national obligations and obligations to NATO, the newspaper reports. Daily News.

“We have those (combat aircraft) that we need to fulfill our national obligations, as well as obligations to NATO, so for now this question (of sending F-16s to Ukraine) is not on the table,” Carvinho explained.

At the same time, the minister said that Lisbon is ready to train Ukrainian pilots who will fly F-16 fighters. He called Portugal open to such an opportunity.

Earlier, the German magazine Stern reported that the supply of F-16 fighters to Ukraine will speed up the implementation of NATO standards in the work of the country’s air force and its air defense system. The authors of the material pointed out that the process of updating the air defense of Ukraine in accordance with the standards adopted by the West is already in full swing. And military aviation will contribute to the modernization of the country’s air force.