Volodymyr Zelensky’s trip to Europe is “a masterstroke,” says Peer de Jong, vice-president of the Themiis Institute and former colonel in the marine troops. Especially since “it is part of a truly European approach”.
Europe “does not have these means” to deliver planes to Ukraine, estimated Thursday, February 9 on franceinfo, Peer de Jong, vice-president of the Themiis Institute, specialist in geopolitics and former colonel of the marine troops. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Brussels for a summit on European support for his country. He was in London and Paris on Wednesday to convince Great Britain, France and Germany. In particular, he calls for the dispatch of air resources to help Ukraine, but according to Peer de Jong, the Europeans “do not have the materials to give them in the short term”. It details the challenges of this request for planes for franceinfo.
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franceinfo: Is moving to London a way to put pressure and get planes? Britain says it will train pilots…
Peer de Jong: Training pilots is not giving planes. Because today, very concretely, Europe, Great Britain, does not have these means. In France, there are about 200 devices, which, in fact, is extremely insufficient. And the English are in the same situation as us. So we can train people, but obviously we don’t have the materials to give them in the short term. Only Americans have it. So can Europe put pressure on the United States to donate F-16s? It’s possible. But on the ground, if you want an airplane, if you want to be an air base, you have to find fuel, you have to find trainers, you have to find means of maintenance. So if we give them a lot of planes, it’s extremely complicated. Especially since an airplane is placed in a hangar and the hangar is a target.
The President of the National Defense and Armed Forces Commission in the Assembly maintains that the priority is land support, do you agree with him?
100%. Of course, it happens on the field. If we gave planes, maybe potentially, we would give them in the months, in the years to come. This will only be effective in the next year, the time to train people, the time to deliver the planes, the time to set up maintenance in operational condition. It takes crazy time.
“The number one emergency is on the ground, in a potential offensive towards kyiv from Donbass by the Russians. It’s the armor that needs to be sent.”
Peer de Jong, vice-president of the Themiis Instituteat franceinfo
We were a little fast on the planes. I think we must first deliver the armor as requested. Once we’ve done that, we’ll see for a second stage.
So how to explain precisely this request which has been coming back for several weeks from Volodymyr Zelensky, since he himself knows that it takes time?
In fact, somewhere, he knows he will need planes one day or another. Anyway, at the same time, it maintains a very high level dialogue. We cannot separate the political aspect from the operational aspect. And we can see that in this context, today, Zelensky is extremely powerful since he plays on both counts. On the political angle, it is a masterstroke to go around Europe and it is part of a properly European approach. We can clearly see that today, Zelensky is placing his country’s action, or at least his action, within the framework of a gradual re-entry into the European Union and that is the objective. We see that this move is an eminently political move, more than an operational one.