White House National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivanaffirmed this Sunday that the president of the United States, Joe Biden has no intention of sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine any time soon understanding that they are not a priority instrument in the Russian invasion of the country.
“F-16s are not key right now for this Ukrainian offensive. What we need are vehicles that move quickly across the front,” Sullivan told the network. CNN in reference to the use of tanks.
The adviser insisted that fighter jets are out of the question “in the short term” but could enter into a discussion about “the future of Ukraine’s defence.”
On the tanks, Sullivan indicated that President Biden had no intention of sending the Abrams to Ukraine at first because “the Army told him that it didn’t make sense to use them in these combats and that what was really necessary was to send the Leopard tanks, of which Europe has many,” he explained.
However, Biden ended up giving in to pressure from Germany, which radically refused to send its Leopards unless the United States sent its own armored vehicles. “The president thought that if sending the Abrams would unlock the German refusal, it was worth doing, even if it wasn’t the most sound decision,” he added.
Sullivan indicated that Biden discussed this issue with the president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, who in any case insisted this weekend on the need to receive these combat aircraft.
The adviser, in response, pointed out that there are too many factors to make such a decision lightly, counting on the need to train Ukrainian pilotsas well as the general problems involved in learning any military system.
For his part, the UK Defense Minister, Ben Wallacestated last week that the supply of combat aircraft to Ukraine is an option that arises “medium term” and that it will not be a reality in the next six months.
“Still it’s going to be a long time before someone delivers fighter jets to Ukrainelet’s face it,” said Wallace, who is attending today at Munich (Southern Germany) to Security Conferencein an interview with the German weekly Der Spiegel.
He added that among kyiv’s Western allies there is a consensus that precisely modern models such as those “Eurofighter” will not be supplied until after the war is over.
However, he defended that the United Kingdom begin to train ukrainian fighter pilotsinitially, with flight simulators, so that everything is ready once the decision is made.
“Unlike with tanks, with fighter-bombers there will be no delay once there is a political decision,” he said.
Regarding the problems linked to the shipment of tanks, Wallace reasoned that “politics has outpaced the military” since in many countries governments have realized that the tanks available to their armies are not in good condition to be sent to Ukraine immediately.
With information from Europa Press
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Source-www.infobae.com