To protect against the Russian aggressor, our state urgently needs fighter jets. However, international partners, in particular in the European Union, are still hesitating about providing aircraft to Ukraine.
It's not about sending planes, but about opportunities. This was stated in an interview with Channel 24 by the head of the Estonian Ministry of Defense Hanno Pevkur.
Hanno Pevkur explained that when we talk about capabilities, it also means air tankers and spare parts, as well as maintenance, pilot training, airports and maintenance and storage work.
You know, this is a complete chain of everything that you need to provide fighters – it's all about capabilities, and not just about providing fighters, the Estonian minister noted.
But he added that it also makes no sense to just give a tank, because preparation is needed, you need to have fuel, spare parts, maintenance, etc. “That's why you don't think that tomorrow I will give you one F-16 and that will solve all the problems,” the head of the Defense Ministry said.
He also added that air defense works on both sides – both on the Ukrainian side and on the Russian side.
Therefore, this means that the EU will not send fighters so easily, for which it is even more important to gain control “on the ground”, and for this you need more advantages on the ground, Hanno Pevkur summed up.
For Ukraine, they can create an air coalition
Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov is confident that Western partners will create an air coalition for our state. The official spoke about this in an interview.
Reznikov noted that we would have two or three types of aircraft. One of them is the main “bird”. It is about the best for Ukraine, our airfields, engineers and maintenance.
