Issued by CEMO Center - Paris
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Sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine will escalate war, Russia warns

Tuesday 31/January/2023 - 05:23 PM
The Reference
طباعة

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.


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