Biden: No F-16 Jets for Ukraine Now

By Staff, Agencies

US President Joe Biden ruled out the delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine amid its conflict with Russia.

Biden was asked to comment on increasing calls from Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky for Western-made warplanes to be supplied to Kiev during his interview with ABC on Friday.

“Look, we’re sending him what our seasoned military thinks he needs now. He needs tanks. He needs artillery. He needs air defense, including another HIMARS [multiple rocket launcher,]” the US president said.

Those American weapons are intended to put Ukraine “in a position to be able to make gains this spring and this summer going into the fall,” he explained.

“[Zelensky] doesn’t need F-16s now. There is no basis upon which there is a rationale, according to our military, now, to provide F-16s,” Biden said.

However, he added that Washington has no way of knowing what Kiev might need in “a year, or two, or three from now.”

“I am ruling it out, for now,” he responded.

On Saturday, Biden declined to answer questions from reporters about what he told Zelensky regarding F-16s during his visit to Kiev earlier this week. “Well, that’s a private discussion,” he said before boarding his helicopter.