Until now this option has been ruled out for fear of a spillover of the conflict, but a Russian offensive in the spring could make the West relent.
Ukraine This week he got his European and American allies to promise to deliver heavy tanks as soon as possible with which to face Russian troops on the plains of the Donbas.
Starting at the end of March and throughout the spring, German-made Leopard 2s, American Abrams and British Challenger 2 waiting for French President Emmanuel Macron to decide whether to send his Leclerc.
Ukrainian diplomacy had been desperately asking for it for months, but for kyiv is not sufficient because Russia still has air superiority in the Ukraine.
fighter planes
So the next step, consistent with your strategy and at the same time with that of the Europeans and the Americans, is to continue pressing, now to get fighter jets.
An adviser to Defense Minister Oleksy Reznikov told Reuters they are now working “on the next big hurdle, fighter jets.”
The Ukrainian Air Force has a few dozen fighter jets made in plants in the Soviet Union. more than 30 years ago. They are inferior to the most modern Russian MIGs and barely fly so as not to expose themselves. When they do, they are limited to trying to intercept Russian planes. Ukraine has not produced combat aircraft since its independence 31 years ago.
The Ukrainians hope that in Europe and the United States they will start talking about the possibility of delivering to kyiv modern combat aircraft, such as American F-16s (which are also in many European arsenals), the French Rafale or the Swedish Gripen which makes Saab.
They are known as fourth generation fighter jet,capable of facing the most modern Russian combat aircraft with guarantees.
That same adviser acknowledged that “if we get (Western fighter jets) the advantages on the battlefield they will be immense”. At the start of the war, the possibility of delivering these planes to Ukraine or of NATO member states establishing a no-fly zone over the country with them had already been debated for months.
The risks
The idea was rejected because it could have involved direct clashes in the air between Russian planes and NATO planes if the Russians had decided to fly over the Ukraine.
Most European governments saw it as an escalation in the war that could cause spilled out of Ukraine. European diplomatic sources recall that the same was said about heavy tanks and delivery has already been approved.
The same Ukrainian Defense adviser said: “They didn’t want to give us heavy artillery, but they did. They didn’t want to give us the Himars (short range rocket launchers) and they did. They did not want to give us the tanks and they are going to give us the tanks. except nuclear weapons there is nothing that we are not going to be able to achieve”.
European sources corroborate those speeches even if they do it from another argument.
Beyond the fears an uncontrolled escalation of the war, believe that Europeans and Americans they already went too far enough to abandon the Ukrainians now.
Long-range missiles, too
And that if the delivery of the combat planes is considered essential in the face of new Russian advances, that expected next spring it will be difficult not to start sending them to kyiv. In addition to airplanes, Ukraine also wants long-range missiles.
Doubts remain because the European capitals and Washington want to be sure that President Volodimir Zelensky will not order attacks on Russian territory with these weapons. It is also unclear whether they would allow Ukraine to use them to attack Crimea, a Ukrainian province forcibly annexed by Russia in 2014.
The European governments are advancing positions and the NATO Defense Ministers will meet on February 14 and 15 in Brussels so that Valentine’s Day enlightens them.