Already the doubts about the delivery of western main battle tanks to the Ukraine had been great, especially in Germany. In the end there were commitments not only from Berlin for the Leopard 2, the USA also promised Kyiv M1 Abrams, Great Britain the Challenger 2. Other countries were supplying the Leopard, which was built in Germany.
Just as there was initially talk of a red line for heavy main battle tanks – not for tanks for infantry and anti-aircraft defense – it was the same for fighter jets that Ukraine recently demanded from its western supporters alongside long-range missiles. Now the delivery of aircraft also seems to be an option, albeit a vague one.
“No weapon system excluded”
The latest indication of this: The United States is no longer ruling out providing the Ukrainian army with combat aircraft, as Deputy National Security Advisor to US President Joe Biden, Jon Finer, revealed on Thursday (local time) on US television channel MSNBC.
When asked if the US was considering such a shipment, Finer said it hadn’t ruled out any particular weapon system. Support will be tailored to what Ukraine needs. “We will discuss this very carefully,” Finer said, referring to inquiries from Kyiv.
From F-35 to Eurofighter
Deputy Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk had previously called for modern fighter jets to defend against Russian troops in the country. His country’s allies should set up a strong “fighter jet coalition” with US F-16s and state-of-the-art F-35s, Eurofighters, German-British-Italian Tornadoes, French Rafales and Swedish Gripens.
The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj had also insisted on the additional delivery of long-range missiles, combat aircraft and more artillery after the recent commitments of battle tanks from several countries.
Paris wants to “leave all doors open”
In France, too, Ukraine is apparently not knocking on closed doors with its demands for planes. “We need to look at requests on a case-by-case basis and leave all doors open,” National Assembly Defense Committee chairman Thomas Gassilloud said in London on Thursday, according to British media reports.
As with tanks: fear of escalation
“We’ll see what happens next in the coming weeks because things are moving fast,” Gassilloud said after talks with British counterpart Tobias Ellwood and Defense Secretary Ben Wallace. According to British media reports, Gassilloud stated that the delivery of fighter jets must not endanger French and European security and must not escalate the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
According to media reports that agreed with the Dutch parliament, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said last week that the topic was open and that there were no taboos.
“Red Lines” for Berlin
The German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius considered a delivery of combat aircraft “out of the question” on Friday, the SPD politician told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (weekend edition). “Fighter aircraft are much more complex systems than main battle tanks and have a completely different range and firepower. We would venture into dimensions that I would warn against at the moment.”
After the promise of Leopard 2 main battle tanks, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also ruled out the delivery of fighter jets on Wednesday – after very long hesitation and a long domestic political debate about it. Scholz drew “red lines” for Berlin. There will be no delivery of combat aircraft or even the deployment of ground troops. “I made it clear very early on that it’s not about combat aircraft and I’m doing that here too,” the Bavarian Radio (BR) quoted the German Chancellor as saying.
When no-fly zones were discussed shortly after the start of the war, he and Biden said: “We will not do that. And nothing has changed in this attitude and nothing will change.” What has apparently changed is that the delivery of fighter jets no longer seems taboo for the USA.
