The U.S. just isn’t presently contemplating sending F-16 warplanes to Ukraine, national security adviser Jake Sullivan stated Sunday, doubling down on feedback President Joe Biden made Friday.
“You do not suppose [Zelenskyy] wants F-16s now?” ABC’s David Muir requested Biden in an interview on the White Home on Friday.
“No, he does not want F-16s now,” Biden responded.
Sullivan elaborated on the president’s feedback Sunday, saying america is “taking a very laborious take a look at what it’s that Ukraine wants for the instant part of the conflict that we’re in.” Proper now, these wants embrace “tanks, infantry preventing autos, armored personnel carriers, artillery, tactical air protection techniques” Sullivan stated — however not the superior warplanes Ukraine has requested.
“F-16s are a question for a later time,” Sullivan stated throughout an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And that is why President Biden stated that, for now, he is not transferring ahead with these.”
When pressed by CNN’s Dana Bash about whether or not which means the U.S. ruling out sending F-16s later on, Sullivan reiterated Biden’s Friday feedback.
“What President Biden stated is what goes throughout the administration. And he was very clear. He stated: ‘I am ruling them out for now.’”
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) argued Sunday that the Biden administration should not wait, since Ukraine has “a window of time” to launch a profitable counteroffensive that would quickly shut.
“After we slow-walk and slow-pace this factor, it drags it out,” he stated on ABC’s “This Week.”
