White House rejects plan to send F-16 maintenance personnel to Ukraine, WSJ reports
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The White House has rejected a proposal from the U.S. military to send civilian contractors to Ukraine to maintain F-16s and other equipment, the Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 31.
Citing officials familiar with the matter, the WSJ said the U.S. intelligence community ruled the plan too risky and "raised concerns over the prospect of Russia targeting American contractors in Ukraine."
Though the move has not been ruled out in the future, the Biden administration is hoping European countries will take partial or even full responsibility for maintaining Ukraine's recently-delivered F-16s.
On Aug. 31, Danish PM Mette Frederiksen told the Globsec conference in Prague that F-16 fighter jets donated by Denmark are "working in Ukraine."
In response to a question from the Kyiv Independent, Frederiksen said she was "extremely proud" the aircraft were in use, adding she had wanted to send them "from the beginning of the war."
"We had a long discussion about whether it’s a good idea or not," she added, in reference to the months-long debate among Ukraine's Western allies over whether or not to provide Kyiv with F-16s.
Frederiksen said Ukrainian pilots at the controls of the jets were "doing a good job," but added: "Unfortunately, we lost one of them recently."
Ukraine's General Staff confirmed on Aug. 29 that an F-16, which had been recently delivered to the country and was being operated by pilot Oleksii Mes, had crashed while defending against a mass Russian drone and missile attack against the country on Aug. 26.
Mes was killed in the crash.
Ukraine received its first F-16s at the beginning of August, a year after its allies formed the fighter jet coalition at the NATO summit in Vilnius to support Kyiv with training and aircraft.
This first batch was reported at the time to have been supplied by the Netherlands. It is not clear if these initial reports were incorrect, or if there have been further deliveries since.
