By Jonathan Landay
MUNICH, Feb 19 (Reuters) – Ukrainian officials have urged U.S. lawmakers to pressure the Biden government to send F-16 fighter jets to Kiev, saying the plane would increase the country’s ability to attack Russian missile units, the parliamentarians reported.
The request came this weekend on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, during talks between Ukrainian officials, including Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, and Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and House of Representatives.
“They told us they wanted (the F-16s) to suppress enemy air defenses so they could get their drones” beyond Russian front lines, Senator Mark Kelly told Reuters on Saturday night.
Last month, Biden said “no” when asked if he would approve the Ukrainian F-16 request made by Lockheed-Martin.
The Munich conference, mainly focused on Ukraine, was held a few days before the anniversary of the Russian invasion on February 24. The sides locked in fierce battles, mainly in the eastern Donbass region, after a string of Russian defeats.
Kelly and three other lawmakers who spoke to Reuters about their talks with Ukrainian officials said they believed Congress was increasingly supportive of supplying Ukraine with F-16s, one of the most versatile all-round fighters in the world.
The Ukrainian Air Force adapted American-made AGM-88 HARM air-to-ground rockets to fire from their Soviet-designed MiG-29 fighters.
Ukrainian officials claimed that their pilots could more effectively target Russian S-300 and S-400 air defense missile units with the AGM-88 if the rockets were fired using the F’s more advanced avionics. -16, according to the parliamentarians.
Kelly argued that while it takes at least a year of training to master the full capabilities of the F-16, Ukrainian pilots could learn to do “a limited number of things…in a matter of months.”
Washington has provided some $30 billion in military aid to Ukraine since the start of what Moscow calls its “special military operation.” (Reporting by Jonathan Landay; Editing in Spanish by Javier Leira)