Enlarge image
Polish MiG-29 fighter jets during an exercise (October 2022): Ex-NATO commander-in-chief pleads for delivery to Ukraine
Photo: RADOSLAW JOZWIAK / AFP
According to former NATO Commander-in-Chief James Stavridis, Western countries should supply fighter planes as well as tanks to Ukraine for its defense against Russia.
"I think Ukraine needs fighter jets," said the former US admiral on Thursday evening on the ZDF program "Maybrit Illner."
He is thinking of MiG-29 fighter jets from Poland, which the Ukrainians know how to operate and which could be delivered directly.
"They could then be supported by F-16s from the United States." Stavridis added that equipping F-16 fighter jets would take more time because Ukrainian pilots would have to be trained first.
However, the Ukrainian Air Force has already done a great job when it came to learning how to use other systems.
At the moment there is a strong focus on the fight on the ground.
“But there's another battle unfolding in the skies over Ukraine.
And there (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is more successful than he has been on the ground so far,” said Stavridis.
Meanwhile, the pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz is increasing in the debate about possible main battle tank deliveries to Ukraine.
Germany must finally issue the export license for the delivery of the Leopard 2, FDP defense expert Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann told the newspapers of the Funke media group (Friday).
“In view of the drama in Ukraine, the chancellor should jump over his shadow.” The Polish initiative certainly sounds like an election campaign, in which Germany is only too happy to be presented.
"One way or another, we should start training on the Leopard 2 today, parallel to the training of Ukrainian soldiers on the Marder infantry fighting vehicle," says Strack-Zimmermann.
Otherwise you lose valuable time.
On Wednesday, Poland agreed to deliver Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine together with its allies.
Germany plays a key role in the debate because the tanks were developed in Germany.
As a rule, the transfer of armaments from German production to third parties must be approved.
According to Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD), the federal government has not yet received any official applications.
After much hesitation, the federal government recently decided to make Marder infantry fighting vehicles available to Ukraine, but has so far refused to supply Leopard battle tanks.
Prominent representatives of the Greens and the FDP have been promoting the Leopard delivery in the traffic light coalition for some time.
The deputy chairman of the Union faction in the Bundestag, Johann Wadephul (CDU), also called on the federal government to act quickly on the issue.
"In order to finally let political action speak for itself, the delivery of Leopard 1 should start immediately," he told the "Rheinische Post".
These are “almost ready in the industry and they would be able to prepare them immediately”.
The armaments company Rheinmetall, for example, has older models of the Leopard 1 that were retired and taken back by the company a long time ago.
Such returns of old stock are common in the defense industry.
The Bundeswehr, among others, has long been using the successor model Leopard 2, the first version of which was introduced to the troops in 1979.
The President of the German Armed Forces Reserves Association, Patrick Sensburg, also called for the rapid delivery of as many Leopard main battle tanks as possible to the Ukraine – including some from Bundeswehr stocks.
“I firmly believe that Germany will agree to the supply of Leopard main battle tanks.
The only question is when the decision will be made," Sensburg told the Rheinische Post.
He himself was "in favor of as many Leopard battle tanks as possible being delivered to Ukraine from Bundeswehr stocks".
Without "Leopard tanks, also from the Bundeswehr or battle tanks of other types," the "war will also continue in other European countries," warned Sensburg, who sat for the CDU in the Bundestag until the last legislative period.
According to international law, a delivery of arms does not make a country a party to a war.
"Even if battle tanks are delivered," emphasized Sensburg.
"As far as the spiral of escalation is concerned, the Kremlin alone decides when to push it forward," emphasized the head of the association.
»Putin only sees giving in or negotiating as a weakness.«
phw/AFP/dpa
