HIROSHIMA, Japan, May 21 (Reuters) - Potential allied training programmes for Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets were a message to Russia not to expect to succeed in its invasion of Ukraine even in a prolonged conflict, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Sunday. "The training of the pilots is a longer project," Scholz told reporters before leaving the G7 summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Discussions with Kyiv were ongoing and no Ukrainian pilots were now being trained in France, the official said. The official said training a person from scratch to operate a NATO-made warplane could take as long as four years, while an experienced pilot used to Ukrainian jets would need four to nine months. We are in a counteroffensive stage and this training won't be ready in the coming weeks, but for the long term," the official said.

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