Germany won’t send fighter jets to Ukraine, senior MP says

BERLIN

The German parliament’s defense committee chief has ruled out sending fighter jets to Ukraine, arguing that the Eurofighters and Tornados lack the combat requirements that Kyiv needs.

“I don’t see the possibility of German Eurofighters and Tornados flying in the Ukrainian airspace,” Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann told public radio Deutschlandfunk on Tuesday.

“This is simply due to the range of these fighter jets and the complexity of the training of pilots,” she said.

The senior lawmaker from the Free Democrats pointed out that US-built F-16 fighter jets, which have a longer range, and Soviet-era MiG-29s could better meet the needs of the Ukrainian air force.

“But we don’t have these fighter jets in the German air force’s fleet,” she said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked for additional military assistance during his recent visits to Berlin, London and Paris, and particularly asked for sophisticated fighter jets.

• Fighter Jets
• Germany
• Ukraine