Fighter jets for Ukraine, a complex challenge for Kyiv’s allies
- Ukraine has been asking allies to provide modern fighter jets to replace its ageing fleet of Soviet MiG and Sukhoi planes
- Moscow has said that Western countries would be moving towards direct conflict with Russia if they send jets
Ukraine’s urgent request for Western warplanes to boost its war capabilities against Russia poses a host of challenges that make an early delivery of such aircraft unlikely, experts said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky called on allies Wednesday to provide his country with air power to combat the Russian invasion, in a historic address to the British parliament.
He made the same demand in Paris where he met President Emmanuel Macron later in the day.
“The sooner Ukraine gets long-range heavy weaponry, the sooner our pilots get planes, the sooner this Russian aggression will end and we can return to peace in Europe,” he said in Paris.
Modern fighter jets would, experts say, give Ukraine an unprecedented ability to strike behind Russian lines, and to make it harder for Russian bombers to target Ukrainian territory with the current degree of impunity.
Kyiv’s request is all the more urgent because Russian forces appear to have begun a major offensive in the eastern region of Luhansk.