F16 important “message”
Scholz on ntv: Russia’s “raid” cannot succeed”
05/21/2023 04:49 am
In an interview with ntv and RTL, Chancellor Olaf Scholz welcomed the plan to train Ukrainian pilots on F16 fighter jets. Even if that will take a long time, this announcement sends an important message to Russia – in which Germany will not participate.
According to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, German participation in the possible delivery of combat aircraft to Ukraine is not up for debate. “First of all, everyone knows that we don’t even have such aircraft,” Scholz said in an interview with RTL and ntv on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima with regard to the F16 aircraft desired by Ukraine. The planned training of Ukrainian pilots on American aircraft is an important “message” that “Russia should realize that it cannot count on the fact that if it lasts long enough, the robbery can succeed.”
Germany, on the other hand, is primarily helping with things that are “immediately important now,” said Scholz: “the tanks, the ammunition, all the air defense options that we have organized and will organize in the near future.” This German aid is “directly relevant to what is happening in Ukraine, where the Ukrainian government and the military are now planning an offensive there for early summer.”
Scholz emphasized that Germany, after the USA, is the country that supports Ukraine the most. “We will support Ukraine for as long as it is necessary, financially, humanitarianly and also with arms,” assured the Chancellor. This message was also sent to Russia by the “economically strong democracies” of the G7 at the “symbolic place” Hiroshima.
According to Scholz, Germany can and will maintain this high level of support for Ukraine “as long as it is necessary for Ukraine to defend its independence”. “We have mobilized our resources,” said Scholz. Germany has both delivered from its stocks and ensured “that we are now getting going” with the production of spare parts and other necessary goods. “We can continue to do this for a long time.”