Ukraine will not receive modern fighter jets until the counter-offensive launched a month ago is completed, the head of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, said on the air of the British radio station LBC on Tuesday, The Kyiv Independent quotes.
“The discussion about fighter jets is important, but it will not be resolved in the short term for this counteroffensive,” said a Dutch navy officer.
“The training of the pilots, the technicians, ensuring that there is a logistics base that can effectively support these aircraft will not be available until this counteroffensive,” Bauer said.
Bauer said that even without fighter jets, Ukraine has an advantage over Russia in training, morale, motivation and armaments of the West.
According to the admiral, Ukraine can overcome the Russian defense, but “it will take time.”
He added that after the conquest of new territory, Ukrainian troops will have to redeploy air defense systems to protect the conquered territory.
Several countries in the so-called “fighter coalition” have promised to supply Kyiv with F-16s and carry out the necessary training, including Great Britain, the Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Portugal, France and the United States.
The Netherlands and Denmark have expressed readiness to transfer F-16 fighters from their stocks.
Zelensky has been asking for the F-16 for a long time
In May, US President Joe Biden approved plans to train Ukrainian pilots on American-made F-16 fighter jets.
But US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said there was no final decision on whether Washington would send the planes.
Zelensky has long called for F-16s, saying that their use by Ukrainian pilots would be a sure signal to the world that the Russian invasion would end in defeat.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi on Saturday accused “some” Western partners of delaying plans to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets, AFP reports.
The commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, General Valery Zaluzhny, says the lack of Western fighter jets makes a counteroffensive difficult, comparing it to fighting with “bows and arrows.”
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Source: Hot News
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