Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday that Poland would be ready to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine if there was a consensus within NATO.
• Also read: Poland: There is no “official discussion” regarding the transfer of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine
“If there is a decision by all (member states) of NATO, I will support sending these combat aircraft,” Morawiecki said in an interview with the German newspaper Bild.
He added that “my assessment depends on what NATO member states decide together,” stressing the need for “strategic reflection by all NATO members” of such a decision.
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Last week, the West reached a plateau in military aid to Ukraine when Germany and the United States finally announced the dispatch of heavy tanks.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is calling for more help, including deliveries of long-range missiles and fighter jets.
On Monday, US President Joe Biden flatly rejected the idea of sending US F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, but other allies said they were ready to do so, including Slovakia, which has Soviet MiG-29s, or the Netherlands. , which has begun to replace its fleet of F-16s with F-35s.
The American and German tanks were only dispatched after long delays and negotiations between the Allies.
“Germany has the potential to provide much more support than it has provided so far; it has decision-making power within the EU, it has money for Ukraine, it has diplomatic leverage,” the Polish prime minister said on this point.
