The US decision not to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine was commented on by John Kirby, the White House National Security Council's coordinator for strategic communications.
Kirby defended the decision of President Joe Biden's administration on the jets, pointing instead to the aid the United States is providing, including Abrams tanks, CNN reports.
“What I can tell you is that there's a lot of capability that is being sent, and will be sent in the coming weeks and months," he said.
Kirby emphasized that the provided weapons would “be critical to helping Ukrainians again in the fighting now in the wintertime, as well as the kind of fighting that we expect that they're going to be doing in the spring.”
In his opinion, the decision to send Abrams tanks was not made too late.
“The decision on the tanks — and it wasn't just the US, it was the Germans as well, and the Brits before that — was really designed to help Ukraine get ahead of the fighting that we think ... everybody's going to see come spring,” he said. “So, this was actually one of those cases where we are trying to forecast the kinds of needs that Ukraine is going to require when the weather turns better — and we can expect that the Russians will try to go on the offensive then,” he said.
Earlier, US President Joe Biden, in response to a reporter’s question, said that his country would not provide Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets.