'No UK, German jets for Ukraine anytime soon'

Berlin [Germany], May 19: Neither Germany nor Britain plan to deliver advanced fighter jets to Ukraine in the near future, the defence ministers of the two countries made clear at a joint press conference in Berlin on Wednesday.
British Defence Minister Ben Wallace said that Britain would consider training Ukrainian pilots, but that it has no plans to donate aircraft to the country. Both Wallace and German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said that Ukraine has expressed a clear preference for US-made F-16 fighter jets, which neither Germany nor Britain possess, and described their Tornado and Eurofighter Tycoon aircraft as unsuitable for Ukraine's needs.
Wallace warned against viewing the delivery of fighter jets as a "magic wand" that could bring about a decision.
In the short term, Wallace said it is more important to equip Ukraine with anti-aircraft and strike capabilities that are comparable to what fighter jets could provide. He pointed to Britain's recent delivery of Storm Shadow cruise missiles and Germany's contributions to building up Ukraine's air defences.
Pistorius also confirmed that Germany would not deliver any combat aircraft.
"We don't have F-16 fighter jets," Pistorius said. "And neither Tornadoes nor Eurofighters are suitable to help now - especially since training and many other things are far too expensive to be able to help Ukraine in the short term." Germany cannot "play an active role" in an alliance to equip Ukraine with modern Western fighters, Pistorius said.
Pistorius argued that the decision on whether to supply Ukraine with fighter jets ultimately rests with the United States, which has been Ukraine's most significant foreign supporter. One weapons system the US has supplied Ukraine with is the US Patriots air defence system, considered the most modern in its field.
The US government on Wednesday rejected Moscow's claim that Russia destroyed a Patriot air defence system in Ukraine, according to various US media reports. The battery defending the capital Kiev was only slightly damaged and could still be used, the articles quoted anonymous military sources as saying.
Ukrainian troops have made further gains against Russian forces in the area of the east Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which has been contested for months. "They managed to advance between 150 and 1,700 metres within a day," the spokesman for the Eastern Army Group, SerhiyCherevaty, told Ukrainian television on Thursday. This was achieved despite the Russian superiority in soldiers, ammunition and technology, he said. Cherevaty did not give more specific details on the locations that the Ukrainian army had gained.
The head of the Russian mercenary force Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, confirmed the Ukrainian advance. Prigozhin said Ukrainian units had advanced almost 600 metres north of Bakhmut. "Do not give up the settlement of Sacco and Vanzetti," he told the Russian army leadership.
Prigozhin had been warning for weeks that the Ukrainian army could advance in the area. The small, abandoned village is about 16 kilometres north of Bakhmut and about 5 kilometres north-west of Soledar, which was captured by the Russians in January.
Ukraine has been fending off a Russian invasion for about 15 months with Western help. The area around the town of Bakhmut, once home to 70,000 people in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, has been the focus of fighting for months.
The Russian military, meanwhile, repeated its claim to have destroyed an almost complete Patriot air defence system. As the Defence Ministry in Moscow reiterated on Wednesday, citing "reliably confirmed data," the attack on Tuesday with a "Kinschal" (Dagger) hypersonic missile destroyed not only the battery's radar guidance system but also five launch pads.
The information could not yet be independently verified. The fighting continued on the ground in Ukraine and its Russian-occupied areas on Wednesday. At least three people died in a Russian attack on the Kherson region in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, while five others died in Donbass as a result of Ukrainian shelling.
A five-year-old boy was among the victims of the Kherson attack, Ukrainian media reported, citing local authorities. Two people were seriously injured when Russian forces fired on the village of Zelenivka.
Source: Qatar Tribune