The German chancellor has declined to supply fighter planes to Ukraine, after approving the sending of tanks a few days back.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in an interview with a German daily Tagesspiegel, rejected the idea of raising the stakes for weapons delivery. “I can only advise against entering a bidding war over weapons systems,” he said.
On the other hand, Ukraine has urged its allies to organize a “fighter jet coalition” to strengthen their defense.
Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, Andrii Melnyk, urged for creating a “fighter jet coalition” that would aid Ukraine with US F-16s and F-35s, Eurofighters, Tornados, French Rafales and Swedish Gripen jets.
In the interview, Scholz said he was deeply considering the delivery of the country’s Leopard 2 tanks. He also clarified that Nato was not involved in the war with Russia. He said, “we will not allow such an escalation. “
“The fact we’ve only just made a decision [on sending tanks] and the next debate is firing up in Germany, that just seems frivolous and undermines people’s trust in government decisions“, he said. “There will be no fighter jet deliveries to Ukraine,” he further added.
Germany had promised to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, after the allied countries pressurized it to aid Ukrainian defense.
Few days after Germany’s approval of sending tanks, the US also committed to sending its M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. But it also said on Thursday that it would first deliberate on the idea of supplying jets “very carefully” with Ukraine.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told a Ukrainian TV network that they were highly required missiles “to drastically reduce the Russian army’s key weapon”.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy also stated the same in his daily video address. He said the country required the US-made ATACMS missile, which has a range of 185 miles (297km).
He further added that the missile would be useful for Ukraine in anticipating Russian attacks on its cities. However, the US has declined to provide that missile to Ukraine.
Scholz acknowledged that he frequently interacts with Vladimir Putin, the two of them having spoken most recently in December 2022.
He added that while he had always been clear that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was wholly wrong and that only the departure of its forces would bring about a resolution, “We need to talk to one another.”
