EU High Representative Josep Borrell has said that several countries, including Poland, have begun training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s.

"I am happy that F-16 pilot training has finally started in several countries. It will take time," Borrell said during a meeting of EU defence ministers in Brussels on 23 May.

Borrell answered the journalists' question about the countries where the training started: "In many, Poland is an example".

The EU foreign policy chief stressed that the F-16s are an absolute necessity "for Ukrainians to continue their defence".

Politico reports that Europe is not ruling out the possibility that Ukraine could receive F-16 fighter jets as early as this autumn.

Yurii Sak, advisor to Ukraine's Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov, has suggested that the Netherlands could be the first to provide Kyiv with F-16 fighter jets.

Prior to that, US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said that the delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine would take "a few months at best".