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A US Air Force F-16 at the Brazilian Air Force Base in Natal (stock image)
PHOTO: PAULO WHITAKER / REUTERS
Ukraine is not giving up, calls from Kyiv for fighter jets from the West are getting louder every day.
Now Joe Biden is trying to slow down the debate about the sense and nonsense of possible deliveries of such jets.
When asked by a reporter on Monday whether the US would provide Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets, the US President replied, "No."
Most recently, Biden's Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer had not categorically ruled out the delivery of fighter jets.
This will be "discussed very carefully," Finer said in an interview last week.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had again rejected the demands for combat aircraft on his trip to Latin America.
In Santiago de Chile he warned against a "biding contest" on the issue of arms deliveries.
Unlike Biden and Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron did not want to fundamentally rule out the delivery of combat aircraft to Ukraine.
"In principle, nothing is forbidden," he said on Monday in The Hague when asked whether France might supply fighter jets to Ukraine.
However, Macron set conditions against which Ukrainian requests would be examined on a case-by-case basis: First, Kyiv would have to make an “official request”.
In addition, the weapons should not have an escalating effect and should not touch Russian soil, but should only be used for defense.
Nor should the French army be weakened by arms deliveries.
Zelenskyj: "Russian terror must lose in every respect"
In the past few days, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other government officials have repeatedly called for an expansion of western arms deliveries, including naming combat aircraft.
In his evening video address on Monday evening, Zelenskyy reiterated the need for his country's complete victory.
"Russian terror must lose everywhere and in every respect: both on the battlefield and insofar as not a single ruin remains in our country," Zelenskyy said.
"So we can rebuild everything and prove that freedom is stronger."
Brazil does not supply cheetah ammunition
Olaf Scholz, meanwhile, was unable to win any new military supporters for Ukraine in Latin America.
The chancellor's interlocutors in Chile, Argentina and Brazil stressed that they would not supply weapons.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stressed that this also applies to ammunition for the Gepard anti-aircraft tanks supplied by Germany to Ukraine or the planned Leopard tanks.
After a conversation with Scholz in Brasília, Lula clearly rejected corresponding requests from Germany.
"Brazil has no interest in passing on the ammunition to be used in the Ukraine-Russia war," he said at a joint press conference.
“Brazil is a land of peace.
And that's why Brazil doesn't want any involvement in this war, not even indirectly."
Germany has delivered 30 Gepard anti-aircraft tanks to Ukraine and has pledged seven more.
However, ammunition is scarce.
A new factory of the armaments company Rheinmetall for the production of this ammunition is currently being built in Unterlüß near Celle in Lower Saxony.
However, production is not scheduled to begin until June.
The first batch is scheduled for delivery in July.
As early as April last year - shortly after the start of the war - Germany had tried to get cheetah ammunition in Brazil and hoped for up to 300,000 rounds.
It is now clear that nothing will come of it.
Lula wants to mediate
During Scholz's visit, Lula proposed a mediation initiative by Brazil and China to end the Ukraine war.
"It is necessary to form a group of countries that is strong enough and respected and sit down with the two at a negotiating table," Lula said at the joint press conference with the chancellor.
He has already spoken to Scholz and French President Macron about the initiative.
The left-wing politician brought himself into play as an intermediary to talk to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy or Russian President Vladimir Putin – as well as China.
"Our Chinese friends play a very important role in this," he said.
"It's time China got down to business."
Lula once again criticized Zelensky for his stance on the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
"I think Russia made the classic mistake of invading another country's territory," he said.
"But I still think, 'If one doesn't want to, two don't argue.'"
In March last year, Argentina, Brazil and Chile were among the 141 countries condemning Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine at the UN General Assembly.
Today's Brazilian President Lula criticized Selenskyj in May 2022 - a few months before his election.
"This guy is as responsible for the war as Putin is," Lula told Time magazine.
It is irresponsible for Western leaders to celebrate Zelenskyy instead of focusing on negotiations behind closed doors.
"We encourage this guy - and then he thinks he's the icing on the cake."
phw/dpa/AFP/Reuters