Why all the opposition in the West to sending fighter jets to Ukraine, asks The Economist nastily in a Feb. 1 “explainer.” The talk that Russia will view them as “escalatory” is the “`excuse [that] has been offered almost every time Ukraine has asked the West for new or improved capabilities,” the miserable City of London magazine writes dismissively. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is, “as usual … the leader of the laggards,” but President Biden is “seemingly among them,” too, it complains.
Training of Ukrainian pilots and ground crews to handle U.S. F-16’s or -17’s should begin “immediately,” The Economist insists, so that when the planes are sent, as sent they will be, Ukrainian forces will be ready to deploy them in Ukraine’s planned Spring offensive.
