U.S. top general anticipates Ukraine’s acquisition of F-16 fighter jets in near future

The United States’ top general said on Thursday that Ukraine was likely to get F-16 fighter jets soon, and said that while the counter-offensive against the Russian invasion has been going slowly, it has had partial success. “There’s a training program in place and they’ll likely receive F-16s in the not-too-distant future,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said in an exclusive interview with Jordan’s Al-Mamlaka public service TV news channel. Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy recently said he had received pledges from Denmark and the Netherlands to deliver F-16s, saying they would strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses and help its counter-offensive against Russian forces. During the interview, Milley said Washington was still deliberating providing long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems known as ATACMS that Ukraine wants and which reach behind enemy lines, including Russia. “The ATACMS is a controversial topic. And for a lot of reasons, they haven’t received those yet. They’re still on the table. President Biden has not said no or yes at this time.“ Milley added that it was too early to say whether Ukraine’s counter-offensive against Russia had failed. “It’s an offensive that has been going on for about, I guess, eight weeks or so. It’s very bloody, slow, high casualty-producing, and very very difficult. So the idea of militarily kicking out two or three hundred thousand Russian troops is going to be very difficult and challenging. A different way of getting out of this is through negotiations and maybe that will happen too. But at the end of the day, no matter which way it is, through diplomatic means or military means, at the end of the day Ukraine must remain free, sovereign, independent with its territory intact.“ The Sun newspaper brings you the latest breaking news videos and explainers from the UK and around the world Become a Sun Subscriber and hit the bell to be the first to know Read The Sun: Like The Sun on Facebook: Follow The Sun on Twitter: Subscribe to The Sun on Snapchat: #ukraine #russia #fighterjet