Ukraine has received fighter jets to strengthen its air force, announces the Pentagon

Ukraine has received fighter jets and spare parts to strengthen its air force, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby announced Tuesday, April 19, refusing to specify their number or the countries that provided the aircraft. “Today they have more fighter jets at their disposal than two weeks ago. (…) Without going into details about what other countries are supplying, I would say that they have received additional aircraft and spare parts to increase their fleet.” Before the start of the war, Ukraine had less than 200 fighter planes, ten times less than its Russian adversary, according to Release in March.

He did not specify the type of aircraft supplied to the Ukrainian army, which had been asking for warplanes for weeks, but he implied that they were Russian-made aircraft. “Other nations that have experience with these kinds of aircraft have been able to help them get more aircraft into service.”

John Kirby also announced that the United States, which does not want to appear as a belligerent country in this conflict, had facilitated the sending of spare parts to Ukrainian territory but had not sent planes there.

kyiv demanded from its Western partners Mig-29s, a device manufactured in the 1980s, which its soldiers already know how to fly and which constituted the bulk of its fleet. But only a handful of Eastern European countries have them. A possible transfer of such Russian planes from Poland had been discussed at the beginning of March, before the United States opposed it, fearing that Russia could see too much direct involvement of NATO in the conflict. The European Union had for its part promised to buy 450 million euros in weapons, including fighter planes, in early March.