Sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine will escalate war, Russia warns
The Kremlin has warned nations on Europe’s eastern flank
that their willingness to send F-16s to Ukraine risks escalating the conflict,
as Kyiv’s defence minister visited France to press for firm commitments on
fighter jets.
Oleksii Reznikov, the Ukrainian defence minister, is
expected to demand French jets from President Macron, who has said that he
would not rule out the prospect. “Nothing is excluded in principle,” Macron
said after talks with Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister on Monday.
However, Macron said any delivery would come with strict
conditions, including not using the aircraft “to touch Russian soil”, and not
resulting in weakening “the capacities of the French army”. He also said that
Kyiv must formally request the planes.
President Nauseda of Lithuania has joined Poland in urging
Nato members to unite and send US-made F-16s to Kyiv. Poland, however, wants
Nato approval and will need to secure permission from the Biden administration.
Asked by reporters at the White House last night whether he
would follow last week’s promise to send 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine and accede
to President Zelensky’s request for jets, President Biden simply answered:
“No.”
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said: “In general, we
see an extremely aggressive position from representatives of the Baltic
countries and Poland. They are apparently ready to do anything to provoke the
growth of further confrontation, with little regard for the consequences.”
He added: “Of course, it is very sad that under these
conditions the leaders of major European countries, who drive all European
processes, unfortunately do not play a balancing role.”
Biden said he planned a visit to Poland but did not
elaborate. NBC News reported last week that he was considering a trip to Europe
to coincide with the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Several western countries last week agreed to send tanks to
Ukraine. Officials in Kyiv quickly moved fighter jets, in particular F-16s, to
the top of their wish list.
Biden did not rule out sending other aircraft or giving the
US’s blessing to other countries sending them.
The Dutch government has indicated that it will send F-16s
once it receives a request from Kyiv.
Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, has already made clear
that sending fighter jets to Ukraine is not on his agenda.
Ukraine’s urgent request to the US for the jets appears to
have been put on ice, at least for the next few months, as Nato focuses on
supplying 100 or more tanks. The US gave its approval for 31 Abrams M1A2 tanks
to be delivered to Ukraine.
A US defence source told The Times: “We remain committed to
providing what they can use in the fight today, and on those items that require
training we take that into consideration [as with the decision to send the
Abrams tanks]. But does that mean we’re any closer to providing F-16s? No.”
Despite almost daily calls from Kyiv to Nato in pursuit of
more advanced kit, the focus in the US and elsewhere in the military alliance
seems to be on what Ukraine needs to defend itself, not on converting Ukraine
into a de facto member of Nato.
Having persuaded the western alliance to send tanks, Kyiv is
so convinced that F-16s and other fighter jets will be next that the Ukrainian
air force is engaged in upgrading runways to receive the aircraft.
Colonel Yuri Ignat, spokesman for the Ukrainian airforce,
said last week: “The works are in progress in different regions of Ukraine with
the support of the ministry of infrastructure, the ministry of defence and
other government agencies to support us in the creation of this airfield
network.”
He did not provide details of where the work was being
carried out, but for western fighter jets to be able to land and take off
safely the surface of the runways need to be strengthened and improved, and
possibly extended.
Making public that the runway work was being done was
another addition to the extreme pressure being put on the US and other Nato
members to provide modern fighter aircraft.
It was reported in Politico last week that a group of
Pentagon officials had been pushing for approval to send F-16s, one of the most
agile and combat-experienced fighter aircraft in the world.
However, this was viewed in Washington as just one of many
lobbying moves to force the Biden administration into making an early decision
on F-16s. “Do people in this town want us to send these jets? Sure, but how
influential they may be or how seriously they may be taken is another matter,”
one source said.