Ukraine has readied plans to secure fourth generation fighter jets from western countries, such as the US, after it secured stock of crucial battle tanks, said Ukraine’s defense minister’s advisor on Wednesday.
Among western countries providing military equipment, Germany has made announcement to supply heavy tanks for Ukraine. It will supply 14 Leopard 2 tanks to the country. The United States also announced supplying 31 M1 Abram tanks.
Ukraine has received huge support from the western countries from the start of the war, which has emboldened it as the war continued. The extent to which western countries have aided Ukraine with lethal weapons has increased over the time period and crushed all adverse mindset.
Ukraine’s fighter jets belong to Soviet-era, before Ukraine got independence from the Soviet Union.
Ukraine has lacked a good level of development of its air force, and so has long desired superior aircrafts.
“The next big hurdle will now be the fighter jets,” Yuriy Sak, advisor to Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, told British news agency Reuters.
“If we get them (Western fighter jets), the advantages on the battlefield will be just immense… It’s not just F-16s (U.S. multirole fighter jets): fourth generation aircraft, this is what we want,” he further said.
“They didn’t want to give us heavy artillery, then they did. They didn’t want to give us Himars systems, then they did. They didn’t want to give us tanks, now they’re giving us tanks. Apart from nuclear weapons, there is nothing left that we will not get,” Sak said.
Ukraine, which Russia invaded in February 2022, has also expressed intentions to have long-range missiles from the West.
Germany’s announcement of supplying Ukraine with its Leopard 2 tanks enraged Russia, as the announcement would certainly strengthen Ukraine’s military power. Leopard 2 tanks are massively used in majority of the European countries.
According to Justin Bronk, a researcher at the RUSI think tank in London, Western jets would significantly increase the air-to-air and maybe air-to-ground lethality of the Ukrainian Air Force.
Bronk expressed fears on Twitter, saying the Russian surface to air missiles would still pose a major risk to Ukraine’s defense as they have to fly very low near the front. This “would dramatically reduce effective missile range and limit strike options”.
