President Joe Biden is reportedly making progress toward approving Ukraine’s request for F-16 fighter planes, reversing his prior refusal of similar requests.
In order to prevent Russian dominance of the skies over Ukraine, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has been pleading with the United States and Europe for months to provide his beleaguered military F-16 fighter planes.
Earlier this year, Biden turned down the request, claiming that the Ukrainian military did not then require the fighter planes.
Giving Ukraine combat planes may have been too escalatory in the confrontation with Russia, according to American officials.
When asked over the weekend about Zelensky’s promises that, should Ukraine get F-16s, the planes wouldn’t be employed over Russian territory, Biden appeared to have changed his mind about his earlier position.
Biden stated on Friday that Ukrainian pilots might receive training in the US on how to fly the American fighter plane.
Less than a week after the U.K. extended an offer to Ukraine, Biden changed his mind.
In spite of lobbying from both Ukraine and other European nations that favor the concept, the U.S. has been reluctant to approve the purchase of F-16s for Ukraine.
Although other nations own F-16s as well, the United States is the only one that supplied them to them, therefore getting the planes for Ukraine needs U.S. clearance.
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