United States President Joe Biden assured this Monday that his country will not send F-16 fighters to Ukraine, despite requests for fighter jets by Kiev to deal with the Russian invasion.
Biden answered a firm “no” to a question from a White House journalist about his intention to provide the fighter jets requested by Kiev.
Reinforcing the air force with fourth-generation fighters, such as the US F-16, has become a priority task for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who underlined in his usual evening speech on January 26 that “Russian aggression can and must be stopped with enough weapons”.
The United States’ deputy national security adviser, Jon Finer, noted a day later that Washington was not ruling out supplying Ukraine with “a specific weapon system”.
“We are going to study it thoroughly,” he insisted to US television channel MSNBC at the time, when asked about Ukraine’s request for F-16 fighters.
The United States announced in January that it would send 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine and immediately train Ukrainian soldiers in their use and maintenance in a third country.
These tanks, which Biden says are the most effective in the world, will take months to reach Ukraine and will be joined by armored recovery vehicles called M88s that will support them.
Also this Monday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz assured that Germany will not send fighter jets to Ukraine. After several weeks of hesitation, Berlin decided on Wednesday to send 14 German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and allow other European countries to deliver similar tanks to Kiev.
On the other hand, French President Emmanuel Macron said this Monday that “nothing is forbidden in principle” when asked in The Hague about the possibility of supplying fighter jets to Ukraine.
The military offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 has so far led to the flight of more than 14 million people — 6.5 million internally displaced persons and nearly eight million to European countries — according to the latest data from the UN, which classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).
Currently, 17.7 million Ukrainians need humanitarian aid and 9.3 million need food aid and shelter.
The Russian invasion – justified by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russian security – was condemned by the international community at large, which responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and Russia political and economic sanctions.
The UN presented 7,110 civilian deaths and 11,547 wounded as confirmed since the start of the war, underlining that these numbers are well below the real ones.
Source: DN
