NATO discusses supply of fighter jets to Ukraine
2023.01.31 03:14
NATO discusses supply of fighter jets to Ukraine
By Kristina Sobol
Budrigannews.com – On Tuesday, Ukraine’s defense minister is scheduled to meet with President Emmanuel Macron in Paris amid a debate among Kyiv’s allies regarding whether to provide fighter jets for the country’s war against Russia, following the omission of F-16s by U.S. President Joe Biden.
After securing supplies of main battle tanks last week, an adviser to Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov stated on Friday that Ukraine planned to push for Western fourth-generation fighters like F-16s.
Biden told reporters on Monday when he was questioned at the White House about the availability of F-16s: No.”
However, Macron told reporters in The Hague on Monday that “by definition, nothing is excluded” when it comes to military assistance. Poland and France also appear to be open to such a request from Ukraine.
Macron stressed that any such action would be contingent on a number of factors, including the need to avoid escalation and assurances that the aircraft would not “touch Russian soil,” in remarks that were broadcast on French television prior to Biden’s speech in Washington. He stated that Reznikov would also meet with Sebastien Lecornu, his French counterpart, on Tuesday in Paris.
In response to a reporter’s question before Biden spoke on Monday in Poland, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also did not rule out the possibility of providing Ukraine, a neighbor, with F-16s.
In remarks that were published on his website, Morawiecki stated that any such transfer would occur “in complete coordination” with NATO nations.
In separate posts on his Telegram channel, Ukraine’s president’s office chief Andriy Yermak mentioned Poland’s “positive signals” and stated that France “does not exclude” such a move.
On Tuesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg traveled to Japan and expressed gratitude to Tokyo for the “planes and the cargo capabilities” it provides to Ukraine. He had urged Seoul to increase its military support for Ukraine a day earlier in South Korea.
Shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated that Russia had begun exacting its retribution for Ukraine’s resistance to its invasion through relentless attacks in the east, where it appeared to be making incremental gains, Biden made the comment.
Zelenskiy has been warning for weeks that Moscow intends to intensify its assault after nearly two months of deadlock along the front line in the south and east.
Germany and the United States announced last week that they would provide heavy tanks to Ukraine, bringing an end to weeks of diplomatic impasse regarding the issue.
Denis Pushilin, the administrator of Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province, stated that Russian troops had established a foothold in Vuhledar, a coal-mining town whose ruins have served as a Ukrainian stronghold since the beginning of the war. There was no indication of a broader new Russian offensive.
Pushilin stated that Ukrainian forces were consolidating their positions in industrial facilities despite “huge losses.”
According to Pushilin, Ukrainian forces were adding reinforcements to the towns of Bakhmut, Maryinka, and Vuhledar, which are located west of the city of Donetsk and run from north to south. He was quoted by the Russian state news agency TASS as saying that Russian forces were making advances there, but that they were “not clear-cut, that is, here there is a battle for literally every meter.” This was his statement.
According to Oleh Zhdanov, a military analyst from Ukraine, Ukraine still controlled Maryinka and Vuhledar, where Russian attacks on Monday were less intense.
Yan Gagin, an advisor to Pushilin, said that fighters from the Russian mercenary force Wagner had taken part of a supply road that led to Bakhmut, a city that has been Moscow’s focus for months.
Even though Kyiv claimed it had repelled assaults on Blahodatne the day before, the head of Wagner claimed that his fighters had secured the village of Blahodatne, which is located just north of Bakhmut.
The battlefield reports could not be independently verified by Reuters. However, the locations of the reported fighting indicated Russian gains, though gradual.
According to the General Staff of Ukraine, Russian forces shelled more than 40 settlements in the central Zaporizhzhia region and the southern Kherson region. The city of Kherson, where there were casualties, was one of the targets.
On the day Zelenskiy met the Danish prime minister in Mykolaiv city, to the northeast, the army reported that the Russians also launched four rocket attacks on Ochakiv in southern Mykolaiv.
Zelenskiy is pleading with the West to expedite the delivery of its promised weapons so that Ukraine can launch an offensive. However, the majority of the hundreds of tanks pledged by Western nations still need to be delivered within months.
Ben Wallace, the British minister of defense, said that the 14 Challenger tanks that Britain donated would be deployed in the front lines sometime in April or May, but he did not specify a specific date.
“To NATO countries more and more becoming directly involved in the conflict – but it doesn’t have the potential to change the course of events and will not do so,” said Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for the Kremlin.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in the United States, “the West’s failure to provide the necessary materiel” was the primary factor that had brought an end to Kyiv’s advances since November.
In a report, the researchers said that Ukraine could still retake territory once the weapons promised arrive.
Russia and Belarus have begun a week-long staff training session in preparation for joint drills in Russia in September, according to the Belarusian defense ministry.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions of people have been forced from their homes as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow says is necessary to protect itself from its neighbor’s ties to the West.
