Ukraine

The training, which will include "several pilots and dozens of maintainers," will start in September with English-language classes to be offered at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, Pentagon Press Secretary Pat Ryder told a press briefing on Thursday. After the trainees grasp the necessary language skills, they will then be trained on how to actually fly the F-16, and this process will begin in October at Morris Air National Guard Base in Arizona, Ryder said.

The drone attack on Shaykovka air base in Russia's Kaluga region left “at least one aircraft damaged", CNN quoted Andriy Yusov, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Defense Intelligence, as saying to local media on Monday. "At least one plane is damaged. As in most cases, the Russian regime is trying to hide the true extent of losses and damage," Yusov said. 

"F-16. Breakthrough agreement ... Thank you, the Netherlands," Zelensky wrote in a Telegram post on Sunday after meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at a Dutch military base in Eindhoven, Xinhua news agency reported.

Ten police officers and 12 children were among those injured in the attack, the ministry said in a Telegram post.

So far, Ukraine has carried out 48 prisoner exchanges with Russia since the beginning of the conflict, Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine's military intelligence, was quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency as saying.

Denmark and the Netherlands have taken the lead in preparing a program to train Ukrainian pilots on the American jet, but the US is still working with other countries to see who may provide F-16s to the Ukrainian Air Force.

In a statement on Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that items in the latest package include air defence munitions, artillery rounds, anti-armor capabilities, and additional mine-clearing equipment, reports Xinhua news agency.

Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian President's Office, said on Friday that bilateral commitments for Ukraine will be an element of strengthening common security in the Euro-Atlantic region.

Kirby stressed that the training is a time-consuming "multi-step process" that ultimately aims to "improve the Ukrainian self-defence and military capabilities for the long term".

"But all of this is secondary. In some places, there are mines, in some places there are technical difficulties, in some places we have been waiting for long. Or there are other complications. We can be discussing it for a long time," Volodymyr Zelensky said. "The direction of the counteroffensive, what's wrong with it, what we have enough of, what we lack."