"It's up to the White House" to decide on a possible delivery to Kiev of F-16 fighter jets: this is what the British and German defense ministers said Wednesday in Berlin. "We don't have an F-16 and we're not going to deliver Typhoon (aircraft) but we can obviously contribute to training and support, within the limits of the fact that we don't have F-16 pilots," British Minister Ben Wallace said in Berlin at a joint press conference with his German counterpart Boris Pistorius.
Ben Wallace was asked about the "international coalition" that London has proposed to build to deliver Western-tech fighter jets to Ukraine. He added that this coalition was "political support", a "signal to Russia that we have no objection in principle to providing Ukraine with the capabilities it needs". The United Kingdom has already indicated that it intends to train Ukrainian pilots in the near future.
Zelensky's insistent demand
Volodymyr Zelensky has been asking his Western allies for months to provide him with aircraft that would allow the Ukrainian army to strike deep Russian troops, without constituting a miracle solution in the conflict.
" READ ALSO The planes in the hands of the Ukrainians... and those Zelensky dreams of
"We cannot play an active role in such an alliance, in such a coalition, because we have neither the training capabilities, nor the skills, nor the aircraft," Pistorius said. "As far as I know, it depends on the White House to decide whether the F-16 fighter jets can be delivered," he said, arguing that this is "not an issue that will be settled in Berlin".
"There are no demands on us" on this subject of fighter jets, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had already said Wednesday at the Council of Europe summit in Reykjavik. The German government is focusing on tanks, ammunition, air defense and the establishment of "a system of reparations," the German leader said.
Berlin and Warsaw ready to train pilots
"Germany could, however, provide military airports for training on F-16 fighter jets, carried out by pilots from other countries," proposed Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, president (FDP) of the defense committee in the Bundestag.
Poland had earlier indicated that its country was not able to provide KIev with F-16s, but that it was not against training Ukrainian pilots and sending more MiG-29s for the Ukrainian Air Force.
🇵🇱 #Poland can't provide Ukraine with #F16 fighters because it doesn't have many of them, but is ready to transfer #MiG29s, Polish President Andrzej #Duda said.
đź“· : AFP pic.twitter.com/QXhPvm3S39
— KyivPost (@KyivPost) May 17, 2023
"The number of F-16 aircraft we have does not allow us to talk today about transferring some of them to Ukraine," President Andrzej Duda said in Reykjavik. At the same time, he affirmed that he was ready to support the training of Ukrainian pilots.
On Monday, Emmanuel Macron had announced that the France would train Ukrainian fighter pilots, during an interview with the 20 hours of TF1, even though he has ruled out for the moment the supply of fighters to Kiev.
