The White House defended its decision on Sunday not to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, despite criticism from Republicans and concerns about whether China would help Russia in the ongoing war.
While Ukraine has recently received support from the Baltic states and Poland for Western fighter jets, major countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom continue to refuse to provide Kyiv with fighter jets. President Joe Biden, who just last week made a surprise visit to Kyiv to reaffirm US support, said on Friday that he now continues to refuse to supply F-16 jets to a country still fighting its neighbor a year later.
On Sunday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan defended Biden’s decision, insisting that the US is providing appropriate military assistance to Ukrainian soldiers to retake Russian-held territory.
“We are taking a very hard look at what Ukraine needs for the immediate phase of the war that we are in. And this phase of the war requires tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers, artillery, tactical air defense. so that Ukrainian fighters can retake the territory which is now controlled by Russia,” Sullivan told CNN’s “State of the Union.
“The F-16 is a question for the next time. And that’s why President Biden said that, right now, he’s not moving forward,” he said. “So as far as we’re concerned, the U.S. effort should be to get Ukraine the tools it needs for that mission. And the mission at hand is to have a successful counterattack where Ukraine can take back its own territory, away from Russian hands.
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Biden’s decision drew backlash from GOP lawmakers, some who want the U.S. to provide military aircraft to Ukraine and others who want the administration to focus less on war and more on domestic issues.
Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said that if the US provided fighter jets and long-range artillery, Ukraine could come closer to ending the war. McCaul, who led a delegation to Kyiv just a day after Biden’s visit, said the F-16 would be able to travel to Ukraine at “great speed” and “hit targets.”
“I was at the Munich Security Conference, I met a lot of high military officials, including the top allied commanders, all of them were happy to have not only F-16s but long-range artillery to take down Iranian Drones in Crimea,” the congressman told ABC’s “This Week” The Ukrainian peninsula has been occupied by Russia since 2014.
“In fact, the word I keep hearing is that we need to put everything in there,” he said. “I know the administration said, ‘as long as it takes.’ I think with the right weapons, it shouldn’t take long and frankly…it’s all taking too long. And it really shouldn’t have happened that way.
Friday marked a year since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, and the war continues to rage. On Saturday, the Ukrainian military reported 27 airstrikes and 75 attacks from multiple rocket launchers in 24 hours.
Concerns over sending US fighter jets to Ukraine come as tensions grow over whether China will send military aid to help Russia win the war. McCaul called Russia-China relations an “unholy alliance” and expressed deep concern about the upcoming meeting between Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
China has drawn up what it says is a peace plan between Russia and Ukraine, but Sullivan said Xi had not spoken to Zelenskyy since the war began a year ago.
“It’s very difficult to develop any kind of peace initiative when there is one-sided diplomacy,” the adviser told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Sullivan declined to elaborate on a hypothetical US response if China helped Russia in the war, stressing that such a move by China has not yet occurred.
“When China talks rhetorically about the war in Ukraine, they are linking themselves, because they know that all involvement with Russia in the war in Ukraine will alienate many countries that are working hard to maintain good relations,” he said.
“So, from our perspective, the truth is that this war has caused real complications for Beijing. And Beijing has to make its own decisions about how to proceed, whether to provide military assistance,” said Sullivan. “But if we go down that road, there will be a real cost to China. And I think China’s leaders are considering that when they make their decisions.