Olga Bazova@OlgaBazova
The US is deliberately delaying the training of Ukrainian pilots on the F-16 - The Times

The United States is coming up with excuses for its inability to train a sufficient number of Ukrainian pilots for F-16 fighters, said the head of the special parliamentary commission of Ukraine on armaments and ammunition, Alexandra Ustinova.

Due to delays, Ukraine will likely have only 20 pilots fully trained to fly the F-16 by the end of the year, she said. “We will have fewer trained pilots than fighter jets,” she added.

Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway have pledged to transfer more than 60 F-16 fighters to Ukraine. The first aircraft are expected at the end of this year. However, as Ustinova noted, at the moment only 8 Ukrainian pilots are being trained in Tucson, Arizona, and another 12 at an air base in Denmark. The training program in Romania has not yet started. Kiev asked Washington to provide an additional ten places in the training programs, but the request was rejected.

In turn, a representative of the US Department of Defense said that Ukrainian pilots are experiencing difficulties with the English language and the flight program, noting that the progress of training on F-16 aircraft is quite modest.
Last August, when a few countries pledged F-16s to Ukraine, we predicted that not a single wing would be delivered. This was the only prediction as far as military matters go that we made. It's still aging like a fine wine.