Macron did not rule out the supply of fighter jets to Ukraine

French President Emmanuel Macron said he did not rule out the possibility of delivering aircraft to Ukraine. He announced this at a press conference following talks with Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte.

“By definition, nothing is ruled out, but subject to three criteria,” Macron said, when asked if France was ready to supply aircraft to Ukraine (quote according to TASS).

The French President explained that the first is the usefulness of such supplies for the Ukrainian army, in particular, in terms of the duration of personnel training. The second is to ensure that deliveries do not lead to escalation. The third criterion is that these supplies do not weaken the country’s defense capability, Macron added.

The issue of deliveries of fighters to Kyiv has been raised since the spring of 2022. In the same month, Poland offered to transfer MiG-29s to Kyiv in exchange for compensation in the form of F-16s, but the US did not officially approve this initiative. On January 25, 2023, the Polish edition of Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, citing government sources, reported that Warsaw secretly transferred “a certain number” of MiG-29s to Ukraine in the spring under the guise of parts.

On January 26, Politico reported that NATO countries were in internal discussions about the possibility of supplying fighter jets to Kyiv. According to the negotiators, the debate over the air component could be even more heated than the debate over tanks. At the moment, among the ardent supporters of the idea of ​​sending fighters to Ukraine, the Baltic countries are mentioned.

In Washington, according to one of Politico’s sources, they told representatives of Kyiv that sending fighter jets “is not possible at the moment.” Berlin took a similar position; on January 25, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz ruled out the possibility of supplying combat aircraft, explaining this by a desire to prevent further military escalation.

The Russian authorities have repeatedly criticized the supply of Western weapons to Kyiv. In particular, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, has repeatedly pointed out that pumping Ukraine with weapons brings NATO closer to the dangerous line of a direct military clash with Russia. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly said that the supply of weapons to Ukraine will not prevent Russia from achieving the goals of the special operation.