Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev described as a "joke" the words of the self-proclaimed president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, who invited Kazakhstan to join the Union State of Russia and Belarus in order to have access to nuclear weapons.

"I appreciated his joke. I think that there is no need for this, since there are other integration associations, primarily the Eurasian Economic Union. As for nuclear weapons, we do not need them," Radio Azattyq quotes Tokayev as saying.

Earlier, …

US President Joseph Biden has given the green light to training Ukrainian pilots on American F-16 combat aircraft, said the national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, at a press conference.

Sullivan noted that the nature of military assistance to Ukraine is changing "as military operations move forward in the conflict with Russia," and promised that training will begin in the coming months.

Possibility of deliveries of American fight jets to Ukraine has faced many difficulties, although this …

Spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force Yuriy Ihnat confirmed that skills of Ukrainian pilots were evaluated in the United States to see how much time they would need to master the F-16 aircraft.

Ihnat noted that the Ukrainian Air Force had previously announced that up to six months of training would be required, but the American side came to the conclusion that the Ukrainian pilots could probably be retrained in four months.

"An evaluation of our pilots was done. These are combat pilots, with …