"Nothing is prohibited in principle," replied Emmanuel Macron cautiously, questioned Monday in The Hague about the hypothesis of sending fighter planes to Ukraine to help it fight the Russian invasion. The French president underlined "criteria" before any decision: a "request made" by Ukraine, that it "not be escalatory" and "not likely to touch Russian soil but to help the resistance effort and that "it does not weaken the capacity of the French army."
"By definition, nothing is excluded," he said, while emphasizing that Ukrainians "are not making that demand today." However, "it is in the light of these three criteria that we will continue to look on a case-by-case basis" the deliveries of military equipment, he added after having posed the same criteria for the possible sending of tanks Leclerc.
"It is according to the requests that are made but not according to the rumors that are circulating" that the decisions are taken, again underlined the French head of state, specifying that the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, Oleksiï Reznikov, was expected Tuesday in Paris for talks with his counterpart Sébastien Lecornu. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, for his part, stressed that there was "no taboo but that it would be a big step" if fighter jets were delivered to kyiv. The Netherlands has not yet received a request from kyiv to this effect either, he said, approving the criteria set out by his French counterpart.
Joe Biden on Monday categorically refused the idea of sending American F-16 fighter planes to Ukraine. "No," the US president said when asked by a reporter at the White House about providing the devices Ukraine's leaders are asking for. As February 24 approaches, which will mark one year since the invasion of Ukraine, Joe Biden did not want to say if he would go to Europe on this occasion. But he assured that he would go, without specifying a date, to Poland, a country which plays a key role in the response to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. "I'm going to Poland, but I don't know when," he told reporters, returning to Washington after a short trip to the city of Baltimore, eastern Maryland.
