No, EU countries aren’t sending fighter jets to Ukraine

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that European Union members will not lend fighter jets to the war in Ukraine, after days of mixed messages from officials across Europe.

“NATO allies provide different types of military support: material, anti-tank weapons, air defense systems and other types of military equipment for Ukraine, humanitarian aid and also financial support. But NATO is not to be part of the conflict,” he said in a joint appearance with Polish President Andrzej Duda at the country’s Łask Air Base.

The alliance “is not going to send the troops into Ukraine or move planes into Ukrainian airspace,” Stoltenberg added.

Sending jets into Ukrainian airspace — ones similar enough to Ukraine’s MiG-29 Fulcrum and Su-27 Flanker fighters — would amount to military interference in Russia’s invasion of the neighboring country, Duda added. Critics of the plan have suggested following through would make targets of Poland and other countries who could potentially donate aircraft to the cause.

Kevin Nieberg, a spokesperson for NATO’s Allied Air Command, declined to confirm the claims of jets on loan on Monday. The U.S. Air Force had “no plans so far” to send its own fighters to fill in for any NATO jets offered to Ukraine, he added.

“Poland and NATO allies are boosting their political and practical support to Ukraine as it continues to defend itself against Russia’s full-scale invasion,” Nieberg said.

A dizzying back-and-forth has unfolded on social media and in the press since Sunday, when Alexandre Krauss, a senior adviser to the EU Parliament, tweeted that European jets would arrive in Ukraine within an hour. That tweet is now deleted.

Josep Borrell, the EU’s head of security, then made comments over the weekend indicating a fighter transfer was in the works but waffled on who would fund it. On Monday, Politico cited an unnamed Ukrainian government official who said local pilots had arrived in Poland to begin “the process of taking control of fighter planes they expect to be donated.”

The publication then reported that the EU had walked back Borrell’s comments, saying no decision had been made on whether to send jets.

“Ukrainian needs are dire. Our member states are already doing a lot and can consider the request of fighter jets made by [Ukraine Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro] Kuleba yesterday,” EU spokesperson Nabila Massrali told Air Force Times in an emailed statement Monday.

When such requests are approved, the EU’s military staff coordinate with member countries on any deliveries of arms, ammunition, guns, anti-tank weapons and air defense systems, Massrali added.

The Ukrainian Air Force’s official Facebook page also posted an update praising the alleged addition of 70 planes from three nearby countries, despite public denials from two supposed donors.

Bulgaria, Poland and Slovakia would respectively send 16, 28 and 12 MiG-29 jets, plus 14 Bulgarian Su-25s, the post claimed. It added that Ukrainian pilots could operate out of Polish airports if needed.

In addition to Poland’s refusal, the Slovakian government confirmed to Defense News on Tuesday it will not send fighters for Ukrainian pilots to use. Politico reported that Bulgarian officials have also ruled out the idea.

If such a transfer does eventually come to fruition, it could help replace Ukrainian planes lost in combat and offer more airframes for pilots on the ground to join the fight.

“The Ukraine Army has come a long way, but the Ukraine Air Force and the Ukraine Navy have not,” said Philip Breedlove, a retired four-star Air Force general who served as the service’s vice chief of staff, head of U.S. European Command and NATO’s supreme allied commander. He now works as a Europe expert with the Middle East Institute.

“They went into this needing help,” he said. “They’ve lost airplanes now, and they need more help.”

On the sixth day of the biggest ground war in Europe since World War II, military experts worry Russia may be ramping up its artillery and air bombardments to beat down the Ukrainian opposition.

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Britain’s Defense Ministry noted an increase in airstrikes on populated urban areas in the past two days. Russian forces on Tuesday bombarded the central square in Kharkiv , Ukraine’s second-biggest city, as well as Kyiv’s main TV tower and the adjacent Babi Yar memorial. The site marks the execution of more than 33,000 Jews by Nazi Germany over two days in 1941.

The Russian military hasn’t been able to control Ukrainian airspace as anticipated by national security experts, though an unnamed U.S. defense official told AP the Russians still have a significant amount of untapped combat power to call on. Overall death tolls from the fighting remain unclear.

European and American fighters continue to patrol the skies over nearby NATO countries in hopes of deterring any enemy aircraft that try to cross into that territory.

Allied Air Command spokesperson Dawn Murty told Air Force Times Feb. 26 that NATO air policing assets had not interacted with Russian aircraft since the invasion began.

Defense News correspondent Vivienne Machi contributed to this story from Germany.

Rachel Cohen is the editor of Air Force Times. She joined the publication as its senior reporter in March 2021. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Frederick News-Post (Md.), Air and Space Forces Magazine, Inside Defense, Inside Health Policy and elsewhere.

北约秘书长延斯·斯托尔滕贝格周二表示，在经历了数日欧洲各地官员发出相互矛盾的信息后，欧盟成员国不会向乌克兰战争提供战斗机。

“北约盟国向乌克兰提供不同类型的军事支持：物资、反坦克武器、防空系统和其他类型的军事装备，人道主义援助以及财政支持。但北约不应卷入冲突，”他在与波兰总统安杰伊·杜达共同出席波兰拉斯克空军基地的活动时表示。

斯托尔滕贝格补充说，该联盟“不会向乌克兰派遣军队，也不会将飞机调入乌克兰领空”。

杜达补充说，派遣与乌克兰米格-29“支点”和苏-27“侧卫”战斗机类似的战机进入乌克兰领空，相当于军事干涉俄罗斯入侵邻国。该计划的批评者指出，如果继续实施，波兰和其他可能向俄罗斯提供战机的国家将成为攻击目标。

北约盟军空军司令部发言人凯文·尼伯格周一拒绝证实有关战机借调的说法。他还补充说，美国空军“目前没有计划”派遣自己的战机来替代北约提供给乌克兰的任何战机。

“波兰和北约盟国正在加大对乌克兰的政治和实际支持力度，因为乌克兰正在继续抵御俄罗斯的全面入侵，”尼伯格说。

自周日以来，社交媒体和媒体上就此展开了一场令人眼花缭乱的争论。当时，欧盟议会高级顾问亚历山大·克劳斯在推特上发文称，欧洲战机将在一个小时内抵达乌克兰。这条推文现已被删除。

欧盟安全事务负责人博雷利周末发表评论，暗示战斗机转让正在进行中，但对于资金来源问题含糊其辞。周一，《政治报》援引一位不愿透露姓名的乌克兰政府官员的话称，当地飞行员已抵达波兰，开始“接收他们预期将获赠的战斗机”。

该刊物随后报道称，欧盟收回了博雷尔的言论，称尚未决定是否派遣战机。

欧盟发言人纳比拉·马斯拉利周一在一份发给《空军时报》的电子邮件声明中表示：“乌克兰的需求十分迫切。我们的成员国已经做了很多工作，可以考虑乌克兰外交部长德米特罗·库列巴昨天提出的战斗机请求。”

马斯拉利补充说，当此类请求获得批准时，欧盟军事人员将与成员国协调任何武器、弹药、枪支、反坦克武器和防空系统的交付。

尽管两个所谓的捐赠国公开否认，乌克兰空军的官方 Facebook 页面也发布了一条更新，称赞从三个邻国获得了 70 架飞机。

该报道称，保加利亚、波兰和斯洛伐克将分别派遣16架、28架和12架米格-29战斗机，此外保加利亚还将派遣14架苏-25战斗机。报道还补充说，如有需要，乌克兰飞行员可以从波兰机场起飞作战。

除了波兰的拒绝之外，斯洛伐克政府周二也向《防务新闻》证实，不会向乌克兰飞行员派遣战斗机。《政治报》报道称，保加利亚官员也已排除这种可能性。

如果这样的转让最终能够实现，将有助于替换在战斗中损失的乌克兰飞机，并为地面飞行员提供更多飞机加入战斗。

“乌克兰陆军取得了长足进步，但乌克兰空军和海军却没有，”菲利普·布里德洛夫说道。他是一位退役的四星空军上将，曾任空军副参谋长、美国欧洲司令部司令以及北约盟军最高司令。他现在是中东研究所的欧洲问题专家。

他说：“他们一开始就需要帮助。现在他们损失了飞机，他们需要更多帮助。”

在二战以来欧洲规模最大的地面战争进入第六天之际，军事专家担心俄罗斯可能会加大炮击和空袭力度，以镇压乌克兰反对派。

美联社周二报道称，英国国防部注意到，过去两天针对人口稠密城区的空袭有所增加。周二，俄罗斯军队轰炸了乌克兰第二大城市哈尔科夫的中心广场、基辅的主要电视塔以及毗邻的巴比雅尔纪念馆。该纪念馆是为了纪念1941年纳粹德国在两天内屠杀超过33000名犹太人而建。

尽管俄罗斯军方未能像国家安全专家预期的那样控制乌克兰领空，但一位不愿透露姓名的美国国防官员告诉美联社，俄罗斯仍然拥有大量尚未动用的作战力量。目前，冲突造成的死亡总人数尚不清楚。

欧洲和美国的战斗机继续在附近北约国家的上空巡逻，希望阻止任何试图越境进入该地区的敌机。

盟军空军司令部发言人道恩·默蒂 (Dawn Murty) 于 2 月 26 日告诉《空军时报》，自入侵开始以来，北约空中警戒力量尚未与俄罗斯飞机进行过任何互动。

《防务新闻》记者薇薇安·马奇从德国为本文提供了报道。

瑞秋·科恩是《空军时报》的编辑。她于2021年3月加入该刊物，担任高级记者。她的作品曾发表在《华盛顿邮报》、《弗雷德里克新闻邮报》（马里兰州）、《空军与太空部队杂志》、《国防内幕》、《卫生政策内幕》等刊物上。