Britain and the Netherlands want to forge an international coalition to supply Ukraine with fighter jets. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte agreed on such a course of action at a Council of Europe summit in Iceland’s capital Reykjavik, a British government spokesman said on Tuesday evening.
Ukraine should receive F-16 fighter jets and also be supported in training. In Reykjavik, Sunak also reiterated his conviction that “Ukraine’s rightful place is in NATO.” Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are also taking part in the summit meeting in Iceland. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj was connected via video.
Because of the Russian war of aggression against his country, Zelenskyy had repeatedly solicited extensive new military aid and support in building a “fighter jet coalition” during visits to Italy, Germany, France and Great Britain in the past few days.
Germany has so far categorically ruled out fighter jets
So far, however, the NATO states have not wanted to meet Kiev’s demand for modern western combat aircraft because they feared an escalation of the war. Scholz had also refused a delivery. At the end of January, he warned in the Tagesspiegel against entering into a “constant outbidding competition when it comes to weapon systems”. Scholz was also reluctant to do so during Selenskyj’s visit to Berlin at the weekend. But after London and The Hague’s push, Germany is under pressure to join a fighter jet coalition.
The Bundeswehr does not use F-16 aircraft. That is why the chair of the Bundestag Defense Committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), again rejected the delivery of German fighter jets to Ukraine on Tuesday. She sees no tornado and no Eurofighter over Ukrainian airspace, she said on Deutschlandfunk. This has to do with the range of the machine and the complexity of the training.
At the same time, Strack-Zimmermann emphasized that she considers the delivery of other types of aircraft, such as Soviet MiGs or F-16 fighter jets from US production, to be helpful. “One could of course offer Selenskyj to provide military bases in Germany where the F-16s are maintained,” she told MDR. (Tsp with AFP)
