NATO Country Sends Air Force Instructor To Ukraine Ahead Of F-16 Arrivals

Greek media has reported that a flight officer of the Greek Air Force has become the first foreign flight instructor deployed to Ukraine. This means that for the first time a NATO instructor has arrived in Kiev as part of preparations to receive F-16s from Western allies and deploy Ukrainian pilots (the first publicly disclosed instance at least).

While Greece’s ministry of defense has not initially confirmed the development, a report by Defencepoint.gr was picked up by several international publications. 

„The presence of the Greek Airman in the capital of Ukraine is apparently part of the initiative of the F-16 training coalition, an international coalition formed on July 13, 2023 during the NATO summit, in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania with the aim of the training of Ukrainian technical pilots and support personnel in this type of fighter,” the Greek publication reported (machine translation).

„The coalition initially included 11 NATO member countries, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Canada, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Sweden,” it continued.

Greece’s participation in the program was first announced during President Volodymyr Zelensky’s August 2023 visit to Ukraine. At that time while meeting with Greek Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis, the Ukrainian leader stated, „Today we have an important result for the air coalition: Greece will participate in the training of our F-16 pilots.”

Western supplied F-16s are expected to start arriving this summer, with Forbes reporting last week: 

On Tuesday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky announced Belgium would donate 30 surplus F-16s—boosting to 85 the total number of the nimble, supersonic fighters Ukraine should receive starting this summer.

That’s enough jets to sustain the Ukrainians’ F-16 training unit in Romania—currently flying 18 ex-Dutch F-16s—while also equipping the equivalent of four squadrons each with 16 jets. The three additional planes would presumably be in reserve to replace the inevitable combat losses.

The 64 front-line jets—the equivalent of a U.S. Air Force fighter wing—could achieve local air superiority, albeit temporarily, Golubtsov said last year.

Below: Zelensky’s presser from that August 2023 trip to Athens…

Notice how Zelensky no longer asks for help, but rather demands it.

This time from Greece, which, according to him, will train Ukrainian pilots on the F-16.

But Kiev is now also concerned about the grain corridor in the Black Sea. Russia withdrew from the deal, and Ukraine… pic.twitter.com/nB8kWoVfKs

— Mats Nilsson (@mazzenilsson) August 22, 2023

Last Friday, Ukrainian MP Aleksey Goncharenko announced on X that „first group of French instructors is already on its way to Ukraine” – though it’s unclear the degree to which this is actually confirmed. Still, most reports are saying the jets will arrive within „weeks” and not months.

Denmark and The Netherlands have recently given the greenlight for Ukraine to use their F-16s to strike within Russian territory in a huge provocation that would mark significant escalation.