UKRAINE will not receive fighter jets for its counter-offensive against Russia and will have to make do without them.
This is what the chairman of NATO’s Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer has said in an interview with a British radio on Monday.
The admiral currently heads NATO as its most senior military official.
And according to him, negotiations on fighter jets for Ukraine must wait until after its counter-offensive.
Bauer said, and quote the discussion on the fighters is an important one, but it will not be solved in the short term for this counter-offensive.
“Training those pilots, training the technicians, making sure there is a logistic organization that can actually sustain these aircraft will not be available before this counteroffensive.”
“The discussion on the fighters is an important one, but it will not be solved in the short term for this counter-offensive.”
“Training those pilots, training the technicians, making sure there is a logistic organization that can actually sustain these aircraft will not be available before this counteroffensive,” Admiral Rob Bauer, NATO military committee said.
The NATO admiral claimed that Kyiv was in an existential fight, and argued that Kyiv has an advantage over Russia thanks to its Western training and weapons.
Despite this, Bauer insisted Ukraine’s supporters should not mix into a discussion about the counteroffensive and Ukraine’s requests for fighter jets, which suggests that transfers of such aircraft are not possible at the moment.
It can be remembered that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has long appealed for his country to receive F-16 fighter jets, he recently voiced concern about the delay in the schedule for training Ukrainian pilots to use f-16 jets.
Zelenskyy made the remarks in a press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Kyiv on June 1.
“Ukraine can get the F-16s. We have agreed, we have pressed, and we have a coalition of countries that are ready to start training for Ukrainian pilots. (but) there is no schedule for training missions, and they’re delaying it. I don’t know why they’re doing this.”
The United States has denied demands for F-16 fighter jets due to availability reasons and fears that such weapons could escalate direct hostilities with Russia.
The United Kingdom and Germany have also rejected the calls for providing fighter jets.
Ukraine launched a counteroffensive earlier in June, Zelenskyy has acknowledged that the operations are moving slower than desired because of tough resistance met from Russian troops.
