“Yes, we are ready to conduct training on F-16 fighters in Poland. I underline that this should always be agreed within the broader coalition, but Poland is ready to carry out such training,” Morawiecki told reporters during a visit to Kyiv.
Since the beginning of the conflict in February 2022, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been urging Western allies to supply the American fast jet. However, without explicit US backing they have been reluctant to do so.
In recent days, there are signs that the American position is softening. Senior Republican senator Lindsay Graham called last weekend at the Munich Security Conference for American president Joe Biden to authorise use of the jets, stating “we need to start training Ukrainian pilots on the F-16 now.”
The move comes days after a bipartisan group of Democratic and Republican lawmakers sent a letter to Biden requesting that he send F-16s to Kyiv.
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Poland has been supplied with American F-16 jets as part of a defence package agreed with the US government.
Also on Friday, Poland delivered the first German-made Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine.
“Today Polish Leopards are already in Ukraine,” Mariusz Blaszczak said during a National Security Council meeting.
Poland was the first country to offer to send Leopards to Ukraine and was fiercely critical of Berlin’s initial reluctance to approve the transfer of the powerful battle vehicles to Kyiv.
