The United States approved a move to transfer F-16 fighter jets from Denmark and the Netherlands to Ukraine.

The transfer will occur after pilots complete training.

“Washington gave Denmark and the Netherlands official assurances that the United States will expedite approval of transfer requests for F-16s to go to Ukraine when the pilots are trained,” a U.S. government official told Reuters.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed the transfer, writing, “I am writing to express the United States’ full support for both the transfer of F-16 fighter aircraft to Ukraine and for the training of Ukrainian pilots by qualified F-16 instructors.”

It is expected that 11 countries will begin training Ukrainian pilots for F-16 fighter jets.

Denmark’s Acting Defense Minister Troels Poulsen is looking to see success from the training by the beginning of 2024.

Reporting from Remix News:

It is not known how many F-16s Kyiv would receive, but the Netherlands has more than a dozen fighters available for potential transfer to Ukraine after an earlier sale essentially fell through.

Denmark, meanwhile, has 43 F-16 fighters, but with the Scandinavian country aiming to switch to the more modern F-35 by 2025, Kyiv could receive all of them in the next few years.