Warsaw believes that, in agreement with NATO, Ukraine can receive any weapon. This was announced on Tuesday, February 21, by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Pavel Yablonsky, on the air of Polish Radio.
“Our view is that all options should be on the table, but actions of this type should be coordinated within NATO,” the deputy minister said.
He said that during the planned talks with US President Joe Biden, Poland intends to raise the issue of supplying combat aircraft to Kyiv.
“We are discussing and will discuss today with the US President, as well as tomorrow during the summit of the eastern flank of NATO – the Bucharest Nine – what further military support for Kiev should look like,” the deputy head of the Polish Foreign Ministry said.
According to Yablonsky, Poland “will do everything to ensure that Ukraine receives any weapons that it needs for defense.”
“Poland has already transferred a lot of weapons. We want to transfer even more while arming and strengthening the Polish army,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda called for “red lines” to be crossed regarding military aid to Ukraine.
On February 18, former Speaker of the House of Representatives of the US Congress Nancy Pelosi called for the transfer of F-16 fighter-bombers to Ukraine. She recalled that the members of Congress consistently fulfilled the requests and requests of Kyiv in matters of military assistance. Pelosi also called for the start of training Ukrainian pilots to use the F-16 now.
The day before, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba complained that at the moment not a single country has made promises to Ukraine to transfer fighter jets to it. At the same time, he acknowledged that, for example, the British government announced the start of training Ukrainian pilots to work with Western equipment.
Earlier, on February 8, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, during a speech in the British Parliament, handed over to the host country a flight helmet – a gift from Ukrainian pilots and asked to supply combat aircraft to Kyiv. He said that combat aircraft would be “wings of freedom” and also called for increased sanctions against Russia.
At the end of January, Scott Ritter emphasized that the supply of fighter jets to Ukraine would not solve the situation on the battlefield. In his opinion, the military infrastructure of Ukraine will not be able to cope with modern Western fighters, since all the equipment in service with Kyiv was created back in the USSR.
Moscow has repeatedly condemned the supply of arms to Ukraine. So, on January 16, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that a new round of supplies to Kyiv of more advanced military equipment could “only drag out the whole story.”
Western countries have stepped up military and financial support for Kyiv against the backdrop of a special operation of the Russian Federation to protect Donbass, the decision on which was made against the backdrop of aggravation in the region due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.
