(Washington) Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that Ukraine has received fighter jets and spare parts to bolster its air force, and declined to say how many or which countries provided the planes.
Posted yesterday at 6:34 PM.
After dispatching howitzer artillery pieces announced by Joe Biden last week, this announcement, which comes at a time when Russia has just launched a new offensive in the Donbass, testifies to a change in the position of the Westerners, which for more than a month refused to supply Ukraine with heavy weapons to avoid any escalation of the conflict .
“Today (Ukrainians) have had combat aircraft at their disposal for more than two weeks,” the spokesman told a news briefing.
“Without going into details about what other countries are providing, I would say that they have received additional aircraft and spare parts to increase their fleet,” he added.
These are likely Russian-made MiG-29s, which Kyiv has been ordering since the beginning of the conflict and which a handful of Eastern European countries have carried out.
Poland had offered to move such planes through a US base in early March, but the United States opposed them, fearing that Russia would see too much direct NATO involvement in the conflict.
Mr. Kirby did not name the donor countries, but hinted that they were indeed Russian-made devices. He said, “Other countries that have experience in this type of aircraft have been able to help them in bringing more aircraft into service.”
He said the United States had facilitated shipment of spare parts to Ukrainian territory, but had not sent planes there.
The United States and the European Union announced on Tuesday that they would not stop there.
” Urgent need ”
French leaders Emmanuel Macron, Britain’s Boris Johnson, Germany’s Olaf Schulz, Romania’s Klaus Iohannis, Poland’s Andre Duda, Italy’s Mario Draghi, Canada’s Justin Trudeau and Japan’s Fumio Kishida gathered for a “widespread consensus on the need to increase pressure on the Kremlin,” the Italian government said. .
A Downing Street spokesperson noted that Boris Johnson had “reported to other leaders about his visit to Kyiv this month”. He stressed the urgent need for additional military assistance to Ukraine in the face of a major Russian offensive in Donbass and continuing attacks elsewhere.
White House spokesman Jen Psaki said participants in the appeal “particularly affirmed their commitment to continue their military, economic, and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.”
According to CNN and NBC News, the United States is set to approve a new military aid package to Ukraine of up to $800 million, less than a week after an earlier announcement of a tranche of the same amount.
The first shipments of the tranche of US military aid to Ukraine announced on April 13 have already arrived at the country’s borders for delivery to the Ukrainian army, and the United States will train Ukrainian soldiers to use M777 howitzers, the last of which are artillery pieces of the generation that the United States decided to hand over to the Ukrainian army for the first time Once.
Even if their handling is not fundamentally different from the artillery that is familiar to the Ukrainian army, these guns use 155 mm shells used by NATO countries, while Ukraine does not yet have Russian-made 152 mm shells.
The transfer of weapons to Ukraine, daily from the beginning of the invasion, is carried out covertly, and the participating countries do not want to appear as belligerents in this conflict.
According to Czech media, Prague sent trains loaded with T-72 tanks and Soviet armored vehicles to Ukraine in early April, an unprecedented operation. Official sources refused to confirm this information.
The Czech Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday that Czech arms companies will repair heavy Ukrainian military equipment, following a recent request from authorities in Kyiv.
Initially, subsidiaries of the Czechoslovak Industrial Holding Company (CSG) will repair the Soviet T-64 medium tanks, which are operated by Ukrainian forces, but in the future the repairs may extend to BRD and BRDM armored vehicles, including other Czech companies, according to a statement. Ministerial journalist.
