Ukraine must not expect multirole stealth F-16 fighter jets from Germany: Olaf Scholz

Germany on Sunday, May 21 said that Ukraine shall not expect immediate delivery of the multirole stealth F-16 fighter jets from the Western allies, but added that it plans to train pilots, joining the league of the UK. "Ukraine should not expect F-16 fighter jet deliveries from the West in the near future," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was reported saying on Sunday, while speaking on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan. Scholz also noted that Germany will not join the international coalition to provide Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets but will assist in training programmes for the Ukrainian pilots on high-tech advanced aircraft. Berlin will focus more on delivering the battle tanks, ammunition, and repairing equipment, Sholz said on May 21. 

“What is connected with the training of pilots is a long-term project,”  Scholz stated, adding even the United States hasn't decided yet what would happen with the programme. 

“The project has a message for Russia: Russia cannot count on winning if it bets on a long war,” he added.

Germany, in no way, will participate in F-16 deliveries to Kyiv, but instead will provide what is “immediately important now,” Scholz said, adding, “First of all, everyone knows that we don’t even have such aircraft.” Berlin noted that it will send the tanks, ammunition, and air defence equipment and that it will “support Ukraine for as long as it is necessary, financially, humanitarian and also with arms”.

“We have mobilized our resources,” Scholz said at summit. “We can continue to do this for a long time.”

Germany 'cannot play active role' in Ukraine jets alliance: German Defense Minister

German Chancellor made remarks shortly after US President Joe Biden told G7 leaders that Washington will support the joint training program for Ukrainian pilots to be able to fly F-16s. UK government also announced that it will, jointly with the Netherlands, will form a coalition to supply the F-16 jets demanded by Ukraine's Air Force for several months. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that his Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte, and he had agreed to formulate the ‘international coalition’ to “provide Ukraine with combat air capabilities, supporting with everything from training to procuring F-16 jets".

Several European nations have backed the move. German Chancellor, Scholz, however, noted that “there are no demands regarding us,” with respect to the delivery of fighter jets as he made a speech in Reykjavik after a summit of the Council of Europe this week.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, alongside his British counterpart, Ben Wallace, clarified that Germany "cannot play an active role in such a [fighter jets] alliance, in such a coalition, because we have neither the training capacities, the competencies or the planes". “I have said early on that I don’t see [German] Tornado and Eurofighter jets [operating] in Ukraine’s airspace, and the majority of my colleagues agree,” the MP from Scholz’s liberal coalition partner FDP and chair of the parliament’s defence committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, told Deutschlandfunk outlet.