It is unlikely that Kyiv will agree with the West on the supply of aircraft as part of the tenth meeting of the contact group on the armament of Ukraine in the Rammstein format in Brussels. On February 14, Denis Denisov, an expert at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, told Izvestia about this.
“We know that Ukraine lacks weapons, the supply of aircraft has been a key problem for the past few weeks. It is hardly worth expecting that now this problem will be completely resolved. But at the same time, some states participating in this format may declare that this is possible in the future, as was the case with tanks, multiple launch rocket systems, ”the expert said.
According to Denisov, the central topic of the meeting at the Ramstein base will be the supply of tanks to Ukraine.
“A number of obligations of states will be confirmed, there will already be an approximate figure that should be realized within a year. Because the states have designated different delivery dates and different training periods for Ukrainian fighters,” he said.
Also, the United States may announce an additional amount of support for Ukraine, the political scientist believes.
The day before, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that during a meeting of the alliance’s defense ministers in Brussels, the issue of supplying combat aircraft to Kiev would be considered, but the priority is to send not aircraft, but already promised military equipment, including armored vehicles. He also added that the provision of fighters to Ukraine does not make the North Atlantic Alliance a party to the conflict.
On February 8, during a visit to London, during a speech in the British Parliament, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky asked to supply combat aircraft to Kyiv. He said that the fighters would become “wings of freedom”, and also called for increased sanctions against Russia.
The next day, the head of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, called on the EU countries to provide Ukraine with fighter jets and long-range missile systems. She added that Ukrainians are fighting not only for their own values, but also for common European ones.
Moscow has repeatedly condemned Western supplies to Kyiv and pointed out that they could lead to a serious escalation of the conflict. So, on February 1, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, expressed confidence that statements about the supply of fighter jets to Kiev would only increase the “irrepressible appetite of the Zelensky regime” and lead to an escalation of the conflict.
Russia continues the special operation to protect the Donbass, the beginning of which Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 24, 2022. The key goals of the Russian military are the denazification and demilitarization of the Kyiv regime. This is necessary to ensure the security of the Russian state and people, the Kremlin said.
For more up-to-date videos and details about the situation in Donbass, watch the Izvestia TV channel.
