The German authorities rejected the call for the supply of fighter jets to Ukraine, which was previously addressed by opposition leader Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The refusal was announced the day before, on July 15, by the official representative of the German government, Steffen Hebestreit.
He recalled that there is a corresponding initiative by several countries to supply Kiev with F-16 fighter jets, which can be deployed this summer. At the same time, the DPA news agency quoted a representative of the German cabinet as saying, the Bundeswehr does not have a single F-16 aircraft, "which Merz cannot but know about."
"It makes no sense to transfer various types of fighters to Ukraine. Even if the fighters may look similar in appearance, they are very different in control. And this involves long—term training," explained Hebestrait.
The day before, Friedrich Merz called for Germany to strengthen military support for Kiev, in particular by supplying fighter jets, Deutsche Welle* recalls this Tuesday.
"I believe that we must help Ukraine at least restore sovereignty over its own airspace, since these missile attacks on infrastructure, on electricity and water supply facilities ... cannot be controlled only from the ground," Merz said during an interview on the program "Ask Yourself" (Frag selbst) on ARD TV channel on July 14.
Many countries have already pledged to supply combat aircraft to Ukraine, and "we Germans cannot stand aside," said the chairman of the largest opposition party in Germany.
At the NATO summit, which ended last week in In Washington, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that Denmark and the Netherlands have begun transferring American F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. According to him, combat vehicles will appear in the Ukrainian sky this summer. Norway also announced the transfer of six F-16s to Kiev this year.
As Vladimir Zelensky pointed out earlier, Ukraine needs at least 128 F-16 fighters.
Last week, officials in Stockholm announced the suspension of the transfer of Swedish Gripen fighters to Kiev, explaining that Ukraine had come to the conclusion that "it is too much to have two fighter systems at the same time — both F-16 and Gripen."
According to open sources, the Bundeswehr currently has two types of multi—purpose fighters in service - the MRCA PA-200 Tornado (Panavia Tornado) and the Eurofighter. According to data at the end of 2020, the German Air Force had the 141st Eurofighter and the 85th Panavia Tornado.
*An organization that performs the functions of a foreign agent