F-16: Biden said no
Since winning Western pledges for the tanks after months of lobbying, Kyiv has pressed on with more requests for the weapons, including demands for jet fighters such as the US F-16. Neither side has been able to regain control of the skies over Ukraine.
The West has so far refused to send weapons that could be used to strike deep inside Russia. US President Joe Biden responded with a flat “no” when asked by reporters at the White House on Monday whether Washington would send the F-16.
Still, Ukraine offers hope. French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on Tuesday “there is no taboo” when asked about the supply of fighter jets to Ukraine. Lecornu spoke after meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksiy Reznikov in Paris.
Reznikov was also due to meet President Emmanuel Macron, who told reporters in The Hague on Monday that “nothing is excluded” when it comes to military help. Macron said any move to send the jets would depend on factors, including the need to avoid escalation and assurances the planes would “not touch Russian soil”.
Responding to a reporter’s question before Biden spoke, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also did not rule out a possible supply of F-16s to neighboring Ukraine.
Morawiecki said on its website that any such transfer would take place in “full coordination” with NATO. Poland has long called for more aggressive military support for Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman said on Tuesday that London did not believe its own jets would be useful, and that sending them to Ukraine would not be practical, given that it would take months to learn to fly them.