Ukraine’s Defense Minister to meet with President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden F. 16 s.
Ukraine plans to push for Western fourth-generation fighters such as the F-16 after receiving a supply of main battle tanks last week, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Friday.
Asked at the White House on Monday whether the United States would provide F-16s, Biden told reporters, “No.”
But France and Poland appear willing to accept any request from Ukraine, with Macron telling reporters in The Hague on Monday that “nothing is excluded by definition” regarding military aid.
In comments on French television before Biden’s speech in Washington, Macron said such a move would depend on several conditions, including avoiding destabilization and assurances that the plane would not “touch Russian territory.” Reznikov also said he would meet his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu in Paris on Tuesday.
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Monday also declined to comment on a possible supply of F-16s to neighboring Ukraine, responding to a question from a reporter before Bilden spoke.
Morawiecki said in comments posted on his website that any transfer would be done in full coordination with NATO countries.
The head of the office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yarmak, pointed to “positive signals” from Poland and said in a post on the Telegram channel that France “does not rule out” such a move.
Biden’s comments came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was retaliating against Ukraine’s invasion by continuing attacks in the east.
Zelensky has warned for weeks that Moscow plans to step up its offensive after two months of virtual standoff along the front lines that stretch south and east.
Ukraine won a major breakthrough last week when Germany and the United States announced plans to supply heavy tanks, ending weeks of diplomatic wrangling over the issue.
While there were no signs of a wider new Russian offensive, Denis Pushilin, head of the Russian-controlled unit in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, said Russian troops were in Vuhledar, a ruined Ukrainian stronghold of coal-mining town. From the beginning of the war.
Pushilin said that despite “huge losses” Ukrainian forces are strengthening positions in industrial facilities.
‘Battle for Every Meter’
According to Pushilin, Ukrainian forces are throwing reinforcements at Bakhmut, Meryinka and Vuhledar, west of the city of Dinetsk, running from north to south. Russian state news agency TASS was quoted as saying that Russian forces were making progress there, but “not clearly, meaning there is fighting here at every meter”.
Oleh Zhdanov, a Ukrainian military analyst, said Ukraine still controls Meryinka and Vuhledar, where Russian attacks on Monday were less intense.
Pushkin’s adviser, Yan Gagin, from the Russian mercenary force, Wagner fighters, took over part of the supply route to Bakhmut, a town that had been Moscow’s focus for months.
A day earlier, the Wagner leader said that Kyiv opposed the attack on Blahodatne, a village north of Bakmut.
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports. But the location of the reported fighting was clear, but gradually revealed Russian gains.
In the central Zaporizhzhya region and the southern Kherson region, the Russian army shelled more than 40 settlements, Ukraine’s General Staff said. Targets include the damaged city of Kherson.
The Russians launched four rocket attacks on Ochakiv, south of Mykolaiv, the military said, on the day Zelensky met with the Danish prime minister in the northeastern city of Mykolaiv.
Western delays
Zelensky is urging the West to quickly deliver the weapons it has promised to Ukraine, but most of the hundreds of tanks promised by the West are months away from being delivered.
British Defense Minister Ben Wallace said the 14 Challenger tanks donated by Britain would be on the front lines around April or May, without giving an exact timetable.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Western countries providing weapons “will lead to NATO countries becoming more directly involved in the conflict – but it does not have the power to change the course of events and will not do so.”
According to the US-based Institute for the Study of War think tank, “the West’s failure to provide the necessary supplies over the past year” is the main reason why Kiev’s progress has stalled since November.
The researchers said in their report that after the promised weapons are delivered, Ukraine may still be able to regain its territory.
The invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow has seen as necessary to protect itself from its neighbor’s relationship with the West, has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions.
Reuters bureaus report; Writing by Doina Chiaku and Stephen Coates; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Simon Cameron-Moore
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