Denmark and the Netherlands have commenced the handover of F-16 planes to Ukraine, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, speaking at the NATO forum in Washington.

According to the top US diplomat, these planes are already on their way and will appear in the skies above Ukraine this summer.

The European NATO leaders, which are also leaders of the Group of Seven (G7), have their doubts that US President Joe Biden will be able to serve another term if re-elected in November, The Washington Post (WP) said citing anonymous officials.

They said that European leaders “came away stunned at how much older” Biden seemed at the G7 summit in Italy on June 13-15. According to the officials, the leaders “noticed he seemed more tired, more frail and was more prone to losing his train of thought.” However, they believed that Biden was currently capable of fulfilling his presidential duties.

The WP reported that Biden’s demeanor and mental agility might be under close scrutiny at the NATO summit, underway in Washington, DC, on July 9-11. The daily said that on the first day of the summit, he “sought to quiet those concerns” when speaking “passionately about the renewed strength of the alliance.” Nevertheless, several Democratic lawmakers said that the impression about Biden’s health condition could change if he “falters at his news conference Thursday”, the last day of the summit in the US capital.

Ukrainian pilots will be able to use F-16 fighter jets as early as this summer because the process of delivering them has already been launched, a joint statement by the leaders of Denmark, the Netherlands and the US said.

Western countries plan to supply Ukraine with entire F-16 squadrons, the joint statement said. It noted that the Western coalition intends to support the aircraft sustainment and armament, “as well as further associated training for pilots to enhance operational effectiveness.”

The draft of the summit’s final declaration agreed by NATO delegations contains a commitment to provide Kiev with weapons “with minimum funding of 40 bln euro within the next year,” as well as to transfer all coordination of military supplies to the alliance and to organize military training for the Ukrainian armed forces, Reuters reported citing the draft declaration.

Earlier, the NATO secretary-general suggested creating a long-term fund to finance military supplies to Kiev for $100 bln a year. However, the alliance countries rejected the initiative.

🇭🇺🇹🇷Budapest and Ankara support the idea of an international peace conference on Ukraine with Russia’s participation, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said when speaking about Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

The two leaders held talks on Tuesday on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington to focus on solutions to the Ukraine conflict. In addition, Szijjarto said that Hungary and Turkey had agreed to coordinate their steps, “so that the topic of peace in general could get back into the agenda of international organizations.”