Pelosi favours sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine

Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has advocated for sending F-16 fighter bombers to Ukraine.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on February 18, Pelosi noted that US lawmakers have consistently worked throughout 2022 to fulfil Ukraine's requests for military support.

"Now we want to [achieve the transfer of] the F-16s. I fully support this and hope that it will be implemented," said Pelosi, who lost her seat as speaker of the lower chamber to Republican Kevin McCarthy following the midterm elections to the US Congress, Report informs.

"Of course, we want to deliver these aircraft, we want to [transfer] combat aviation. The decision has not been made yet, but this [issue] is given high priority," Pelosi stressed. The congresswoman also spoke in favour of starting to train Ukrainian pilots to use the F-16s "now, because it will take some time".

Politico reported on February 17 that a group of five congressmen, including both Democrats and Republicans, had sent a letter to US President Joe Biden urging him to hand over the F-16s to Ukraine.

On January 31, Biden said that Washington would not transfer the F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. Later, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that Kyiv was offered to start training marines and fighter pilots from NATO in the UK. However, a representative of Sunak later clarified that the government had not made a decision on transferring the fighter jets to Ukraine and that the issue would be considered from different sides. For his part, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius repeatedly said that Germany was not going to deliver the fighters to Ukraine.