SPD leader Lars Klingbeil continues to reject Germany’s participation in the delivery of combat aircraft to Ukraine. “Everyone has different military skills. The fighter jets are not part of it for us,” said Klingbeil of the “Rheinische Post”. The statement by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) “applies here,” he emphasized.
Germany is concentrating “on training, tanks and anti-missile defense,” added the SPD politician. In addition, Germany is the second largest donor to Ukraine after the USA. And the new 2.7 billion package for Ukraine has “again a force in the long run”.
Ukraine has been pushing for a delivery of Western fighter jets in the war against Russia for some time. The leadership in Kiev is particularly interested in US F-16 fighter jets, which are used by numerous armed forces around the world.
The United States opened up for the first time on Friday to supplying Western F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. A US official said President Biden said at the G7 summit in Hiroshima that the US supports training of Ukrainian pilots on “fourth generation fighter jets including (the US fighter jet) F-16” in cooperation with “allies and partners”. would. Zelenskyy was pleased and said he hoped for a “practical implementation”.
According to a survey, a large majority of Germans reject Germany supplying combat aircraft to Ukraine. In a survey for the Funke media group, twelve percent of those questioned were skeptical about a delivery and 51 percent openly rejected it.
The attitude is therefore widespread in all parties. The Greens are an exception, with 54 percent of their supporters supporting the use of combat aircraft as weapons. Supporters of all other parties spoke out against it. Skepticism is greatest among supporters of the AfD (88 percent), Left Party (76 percent), SPD (63 percent), Union and FDP (59 percent each).
Zelenskyj meets Biden at the G7 summit
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy flies from one summit to the next. After his talks at the Arab League meeting in Jeddah on Friday, Zelenskyy made his way to the summit of the seven leading democratic economic powers (G7) in Hiroshima.
Selenskyj wants to meet US President Joe Biden in Hiroshima, among others. First and foremost, he wanted to talk to the US colleague about the participation of the United States in the so-called combat aircraft coalition announced by Biden. “Today I can officially speak about the formation of the aviation coalition, and that means that very soon Ukraine will have everything to protect its skies, cities and citizens,” said the head of the Presidential Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak.
US President Biden informed G7 leaders at Friday’s deliberations that the United States will support training Ukrainian pilots on fourth-generation fighter jets, including the F-16, as a senior US official official announced. First, pilots should be trained. Then it will be decided when and how many aircraft will be delivered and who will make them available, he said.
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