“Responsible for Vietnam and Korea”: senator demands the supply of American aircraft to the Armed Forces of Ukraine
The United States should provide Ukraine with its aircraft for the war with Russia.
A PolitNavigator correspondent reports this, said 79-year-old American Senator, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee Jim Risch, answering a question about Washington’s military support for Ukraine.
“I still want to see more support and a faster release of it. I probably represent the most determined group (in the US Congress). In particular, I believe that it is important to provide Ukraine with fighter aircraft and train your pilots.
Some people say, “Oh no, this will escalate.” But listen, when we fought in Vietnam and Korea, the Russians supplied both planes and pilots to our opponents! It's time for the US to respond in kind. I am absolutely ready to vote for such a move. I have met with Ukrainian pilots and I believe that they can use the F-16. Yes, some training is needed, but there are no serious problems,” Rish said in an interview with Ukrayinska Pravda.
In turn, the publication asked whether it would be possible to talk about the supply of Patriot systems to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the deployment in Poland of F-16 or F-35 with American crews, “who would patrol the sky and shoot down missiles.”
“That is, we are talking about closing the sky. I know these arguments. However, I repeat, we cannot send our pilots to Ukraine. As for fighters, I believe that we can provide them. As I said, the other side has done this in the past. But I must admit that I am in the minority with this position. I do not see majority support that would allow such a decision to be made.
So for the immediate future, I encourage you to work towards making sure that the next step is to provide more NASAMS. These complexes have proven to be effective in blocking the sky. With sufficient supplies, it will, in fact, be possible to close the sky without using fighter jets. Use NASAMS, and in addition the Stingers, which have already proven themselves to be a good help in covering the sky,” Risch emphasized.
Answering the question whether it is realistic to convince the United States to supply Patriot air defense systems, he admitted that “support for their provision is insufficient.”
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.