Germany says it may not join the alliance to supply F-16s to Ukraine

Germany has neither the training capabilities nor the military equipment to actively contribute to the British-Dutch initiative to supply F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Wednesday.

The United Kingdom said during the Council of Europe in Iceland that it was working with the Netherlands to form an international coalition to help Ukraine obtain the F-16 jets, although London, Berlin and Washington have yet to announce their plans. Has hesitated to provide own aircraft.

“We cannot play an active role in such an alliance, in such an alliance, because we have neither the training capabilities, nor the skills, nor the aircraft,” Boris Pistorius said in Berlin after a meeting with his British counterpart Ben Wallace. “

Ben Wallace said, “It’s up to the White House to decide whether they want to disseminate this technology.”

“What’s really important here is to signal to Russia that we have no principled philosophical objection as nations to providing Ukraine with the capabilities it needs, depending on what happens on the battlefield,” he said. “

The initiative has not progressed so far, with Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra saying on Wednesday: “We have not yet reached a solution (…) When we are ready to cross this bridge and communicate it, So we’ll do it”, he remarked.

(Reporting by Rachel Mor and William James with contributions by Charlotte van Campenhout in Amsterdam; French edition edited by Kate Enstringer, Blandin Heinault)