The administration of US President Joe Biden has rejected a proposal to send US contractors to Ukraine to maintain Western military equipment, including F-16 jet fighters, due to security concerns, The Wall Street Journal reports with reference to US officials.
The newspaper notes that the debate over sending American civilians to Kyiv has been going on since the first days of the war. The first six of the promised 80 F-16 aircraft arrived in Ukraine in late July.
"The National Security Council considered a proposal to send civilian contractors to Ukraine to maintain the F-16s and other military weapons, but the intelligence community and others deemed it too risky at this point," the WSJ emphasises.
Intelligence officials fear that Russia will "target American contractors in Ukraine".
US officials hope that European countries will take on more (and possibly all) responsibility for the maintenance of the fighter jets.
The White House has not ruled out sending US contractors to Ukraine in the future, but "they will not be coming there in the near future".
- A few days ago, an experienced pilot, Oleksiy Mes, was killed in an F-16 plane crash in Ukraine. Together with Andriy Pilshchikov, he made great efforts to get the American fighters into service with the Ukrainian Air Force. Pilshchikov was killed a year ago.
- Yesterday, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Mykola Oleshchuk.