The US chief of staff confirmed that delivery of F-16 aircraft and ATACMS tactical missiles to Ukraine is being considered. However, a decision on this has not yet been made.
In an interview published by the Washington Post on Friday, the Ukrainian army’s commander-in-chief Valery Zalouzhny estimates that the Ukrainian army is limited in its counter-offensive by the lack of armament, especially combat aircraft.
“It gets on my nerves,” he says of Westerners who complain about Kiev’s slow progress in fighting the Russians while he wishes they would deliver weapons more quickly.
In order to be able to compete with the Russian Air Force, Ukraine needs the promised F-16 fighter jets as soon as possible, emphasizes the colonel general.
“We don’t need 120 planes. I will not threaten the entire planet. A small number will suffice,” he said again in the columns of the American daily. “But they are necessary, there is no other solution.”
He also laments the lack of artillery in the face of the barrage of Russian fire.
When Valery Zaloujny says he is in constant contact with his Western partners, such as US Chief of Staff Mark Milley, he regrets that they are not making the decisions.
“While decisions are being made, it is evident that many people are dying every day and in large numbers. Quite simply because the decisions are not made immediately,” he told the Washington Post.
“We’re giving them all the help we can,” Mark Milley told reporters on Friday. The delivery of F-16 tactical missiles or ATACMS missiles is “on the table, but no decision has been made yet,” he added.
The counteroffensive “progresses more slowly than we predicted,” he said, but “war is like that.” “That doesn’t surprise me at all.”
Still, the Ukrainian army is making “continuous advances,” “500, 1,000, 2,000 meters a day, something like that,” noted the US chief of staff.