REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
- Ukraine is finally operating F-16s, but President Zelenskyy said Kyiv lacks trained pilots.
- With this in mind, a US lawmaker is urging retired F-16 pilots from the West to go to Ukraine.
- "They will hire you here," Sen. Lindsey Graham said during a visit to Ukraine this week.
A US senator who recently visited Ukraine has issued a call for retired F-16 pilots to join Kyiv's air force, where they can fly the American-made aircraft in a "fight for freedom" against Russia.
Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal met on Monday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who told the lawmakers that he wants to establish a program to enlist retired F-16 pilots from NATO countries to help strengthen his country's air force.