Germany will not provide Ukraine with fighter jets

4 months ago 10

Germany will not provide fighter jets to Ukraine, the government made clear on Monday after Friedrich Merz, leader of the main opposition party, suggested as much.

Responding to a statement by the leader of Germany’s conservative CDU/EPP party, Germany’s three-party government said it would not provide fighter jets to Ukraine, citing a lack of F-16s.

“It makes no sense to hand over various types of fighter jets to Ukraine, regardless of who would even be in a position to supply such aircraft,” a government spokesperson said on Monday.

“Even if fighter planes look so similar from the outside, they are very different to handle. It’s about long-term training,” he added.

In a televised interview on Sunday, Merz expressed that “the delivery of fighter jets to Ukraine is already a done deal in many countries around the world, including in Europe. As Germans, we should not stand back.”

Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway have so far pledged to supply Ukraine with US-made F-16 fighter jets, and with the first Ukrainian pilots about to complete their training on them, the first jets are expected to arrive in the war-torn country in the next few months.

“The F-16 will be flying in the skies of Ukraine this summer”, said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on 10 July.

Germany’s armed forces do not have any of the American jets themselves, as the country’s air combat capabilities are built around the Eurofighter Typhoon.

According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Germany contributed €10.2 billion in military assistance to Ukraine between January 2022 and the end of April 2024. Last week, Germany, the US, and Romania pledged five additional air defence systems, including US-made Patriots.

Speaking about the delivery of the fighter jets, a Defence Ministry spokesman added on Monday that “Things don’t get better if everyone wants to do everything, but that we concentrate on what the country or countries and groups can do best.”

(Kjeld Neubert | Euractiv.de)