Within 11 months of the full-scale invasion, if Ukraine asked for some weapons from the US and its allies, after a while it received them, including rocket artillery, powerful air defense systems, armored fighting vehicles, and even tanks. The supply of fighter jets to Ukraine is now a matter of time, this is stated in the Business Insider article " Ukraine received tanks, and now it is looking at planes ".
In particular, in an interview with the publication, the former ambassador of France to the United States and the United Nations, Gerard Araud, talks about the high probability of Ukraine receiving Western aircraft. He describes the security assistance to Ukraine during this war as "serving food": Ukraine receives it in portions, step by step.
"Every three months there is a debate about a new type of weapon. Now they were talking about tanks. I can bet that in the next three months it will be airplanes," the diplomat told the newspaper.
"Every time we argue and argue," but eventually countries give the green light to military equipment, he added.
The US officially states that security assistance to the Ukrainian Armed Forces is usually focused on current needs on the battlefield. At the same time, as Pentagon spokesman General Pat Ryder recently stated, although Washington continues to assess the "urgent" needs of Ukrainians on the battlefield, there are also discussions about what Kyiv needs in the "medium and long-term". The USA has not yet announced the planes for Ukraine, and it is not known whether this decision will be taken at all.
Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz said the day before during a speech in the Bundestag that he does not plan to send fighter jets to Ukraine. "I made it clear from the very beginning that we are not talking about combat aviation, and I repeat it right here," Al Jazeera reminds of Chancellor Scholz's statement in the article " After tanks, Ukraine is looking at fighter jets: This is what we want ".
Ukraine is asking international allies to provide Kyiv with some of the best American F15 and F16 fighter jets.
Business Insider journalists interviewed experts, which of the Western planes could be the best in the conditions of the war in Ukraine. Experts called the Swedish-made Gripen plane underestimated, saying that it is much cheaper and easier to operate, compared to American counterparts.
The American military aircraft A-10 Warthog is also considered a good option for Ukraine - it is slower than the F16, but very powerful. In the American army, these planes are called "tank killers".
The British newspaper The Guardian in the article " Ukraine asks for fighter jets after German offer of Leopard tanks " refers to the statement of the Dutch government, saying that they are considering transferring some of their 50 aircraft to Kyiv in coordination with allies.
Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said last week that the Netherlands would consider any requests from Ukraine for US-made F16 fighter jets. According to him, "there is no taboo" on military aid, Newsweek writes.
In the article " Planes for Ukraine: Kyiv pushes for the West to overcome the latest ban ", Newsweek also quotes the US ambassador to the OSCE, Michael Carpenter, as saying that Washington will support any European country that wants to send its American-made planes to Ukraine.
With the decision regarding the country's tanks, the West has shown "a real change in appetite for political risk" in the issue of fighter jets, Justin Bronk, an expert at the Royal Institute in London, commented to the publication.
Newsweek quoted Bronka as saying, "There is a relatively limited window for Ukraine to potentially make decisive territorial gains sometime in the next six months or so before another major wave of Russian mobilization."
"There is no scenario in which there is a requirement (for aircraft, ed.) even if Ukraine wins this year, will completely vanish," the expert analyzes. The question is when we will carry it out.So there's a strong case to be made for saying, 'You have to do it now,'" Bronk continues.
If Ukraine receives American planes, they could become decisive on the battlefield, both in defensive and offensive operations, which Kyiv will have to conduct to liberate the territories, according to the retired lieutenant general of the US Air Force, who is now the dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies David Deptula.
"Air power provides advantages over armored vehicles, artillery and infantry in such characteristics as speed, range, flexibility, perspective, maneuverability, mobility and lethality," Newsweek quoted General Deptula as saying. - Although ground forces are certainly necessary, the "combined army" is not effective without aviation."
"If Ukraine does not acquire replacement fighter jets of Western origin in the coming months, it will lose the ability to defend its airspace and support its ground forces, and without control of its skies, it will lose," said retired US Air Force Lieutenant General David Deptula.
On January 25, during his evening address, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, stated the need to obtain Western military aircraft. "We have to start supplying planes for Ukraine. And this is a dream. And this is a task. An important task for all of us," the president said. According to President Zelenskyi, he discussed this issue with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
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