Ukraine calls for fighter jets as next priority after securing tanks

Ukraine has said it is confident of securing western combat jets as it seeks to galvanise Nato military support after the breakthrough this week on the delivery of modern battle tanks.

Kyiv has put the F-16 at the top of its wish list, although officials have also pointed to the significantly more advanced F-35 as well as the Eurofighter, the Tornado, the French-made Rafale and the Swedish Gripen fighter.

The F-16, developed in the 1970s, was once the fighter jet of choice for many air forces but is gradually being retired from service, meaning there is in theory a deep reservoir of aircraft and spare parts on which Ukraine could draw.

Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer, has said it is already stepping up production of newer F-16 models in anticipation of a wave of demand from countries giving older F-16s to Ukraine and seeking a swift replacement.

Yuriy Sak, an adviser to the Ukrainian defence minister, has given numerous interviews urging his country’s western backers not to delay for as long as they did over the Leopard 2 and M1 Abrams battle tanks, which were finally pledged on Wednesday. “We will get F-16s,” Sak told CNBC. “At the moment more than 50 countries around the world have this platform. I don’t see a reason, or any rational explanation, why Ukraine shouldn’t be getting F-16s or other fourth-generation jet fighters.”

Ukraine has been seeking jet fighters since the middle of last year but its campaign has suddenly gathered momentum after the deal for the US, Germany, Britain, France, Poland and other allies to dispatch modern battle tanks.

Élisabeth Borne, the French prime minister, said “nothing is excluded” in terms of arms donations as Paris becomes significantly franker about its hopes for a Ukrainian military victory.

The French air force does not operate F-16s but could in theory spare some of its ageing Mirage fighter jets, all 124 of which are to be replaced by newer Rafales under a package announced by President Macron last week.

The Netherlands, which plans to replace its 29 remaining F-16s soon, has said it will consider any Ukrainian requests with an “open mind”. Although Mark Rutte, the prime minister, said the decision would be “much harder” than that over tanks, Wopke Hoekstra, his deputy, said there were “no taboos”.

Poland drew up a plan to give Ukraine some of its Soviet-vintage Mig-29 jets in September but backed down when the United States said it would not take part. This week, however, the Dziennik Gazeta Prawna newspaper reported that Poland had secretly shipped several disassembled MiG-29s into Ukraine as “spare parts”.

Ultimately, however, Ukraine’s hopes of obtaining the F-16 or other western jets depend heavily on the United States. A spokesman for the US National Security Council said yesterday: “It is not surprising that the Ukrainians have asked [not only for] F-16s in particular, but fighter aircraft generally. This is not a new request by them and you can hardly blame them . . . All I will say is that we are in constant discussion with the Ukrainians about their capability needs.”

Andriy Melnyk, the deputy Ukrainian foreign minister, has also asked Germany for its 93 Tornado jets, which are due to be replaced with F-35s and Eurofighters. In the Bundestag on Wednesday, Olaf Scholz, the chancellor, gave the idea short shrift: “I made it clear very early on that there is no question of fighter jets, and I’ll do that here, too.”

Behind the scenes, however, the German government is understood to be ruling nothing out, although there is a degree of exasperation that Ukraine is pushing for fighter jets so soon after Berlin made the politically tricky decision to send Leopard 2 battle tanks.

Britain has no immediate plans to send warplanes to Ukraine. However, Kyiv may request British helicopters in the hope this would unlock western deliveries of fighter jets in much the same way as the UK’s promise to deliver 14 Challenger 2 tanks led to international pressure for Germany and the US to send M1 Abrams and Leopard 2 tanks.