WASHINGTON, Jan. 31: US President Joe Biden said Monday he will not approve sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.
“No,” Biden said in response to a question about the possibility of such a decision.
As he spoke, Biden returned to the White House from a trip to Baltimore, Maryland. Biden also said that he planned to visit Poland but he did not yet know when.
The president’s comments came as the debate heated up over whether to arm Ukraine, which has been in conflict with Russia for nearly a year, with Western-made fighter jets.
When asked about the administration’s decision on the possible delivery of F-16s to Ukraine, US Deputy National Security Adviser Jonathan Finer said during an appearance on MSNBC last Thursday that “we have not ruled out nor ruled out any specific system”.
“We have tried to tailor our assistance to the phase of the fighting the Ukrainians are in. I don’t have an announcement to make one way or the other,” he added.
While a constant request from the kyiv authorities, the fighter jets have long been considered taboo by the West in terms of military assistance to Ukraine, fearing that such deliveries would lead to an uncontrollable escalation of the conflict.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter last Wednesday that securing the supply of Western-type fighter jets is among the “new tasks ahead” for Ukraine. On the same day, the United States and Germany announced their respective decisions to send main battle tanks to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s request for fighter jets was met with refusal by Germany, whose chancellor Olaf Scholz recently said fighter jets are not an item on Berlin’s arms list for Ukraine.
“The question of combat aircraft does not arise at all,” Scholz said in an interview with Tagesspiegel published on Sunday. “I can only advise against getting into a constant competition to outdo each other when it comes to weapon systems.”
