The first delivery of US-made F-16 fighter jets, equipped with advanced weapon systems, reached Ukraine last week, much to the relief of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s beleaguered and battle-worn soldiers.
Good: But it shouldn’t have taken this long. And, as usual, the delivery isn’t just late; it’s insufficient.
The number of jets will be “small,” according to a source, and Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide warned: “It’s not in itself changing the war.”
Is anything more frustrating?
The Biden administration’s entire approach to the Russian invasion has been a day late and a dollar short.
President Biden stubbornly refused Zelensky’s pleas to send F-16s last year, denying Ukraine badly needed defenses against Russia’s superior air-combat weaponry.
He prevented the transfer of 28 Polish MiG-29s in 2022, claiming allowing Ukraine to have the jets would bring on “World War III.”
Are we any less at risk of full-on, widespread war now?
Vladimir Putin, not satisfied with tormenting Ukraine, is reportedly already planning to spread his campaign to NATO countries in the next decade.
Yet we’re dribbling out weapons in small batches to Ukraine, sending just enough to keep them in the fight, not to land decisive blows.
Biden’s timidity and hesitation is dragging the war out, as Ukraine’s army becomes more exhausted and depleted, its infrastructure continues to be destroyed, and its men, women and children die.
Kyiv cannot win this way.
Meanwhile, Russia continues to throw everything it has into crushing Ukraine, ramping up its own arms industry into a well-oiled war machine while receiving critical support from China and North Korea.
Russia has reportedly used prisoners of war and wounded Russian soldiers in horrific “meat wave” attacks, sending them out on the front lines to draw Ukrainian fire and reveal their positions.
In a move that shows Putin’s absolute cruelty and spine-chilling depravity, Russia has even reportedly started training kidnapped Ukrainian children to fight against their own countrymen.
Putin has a win-at-all costs mentality. He can be beaten, but his rigid determination must be met with equal resolve.
Stop this slow drip of weapons to Ukraine. Let Ukraine throw everything it can at this bloodthirsty tyrant.
Show him that America will not stand by while he tramples over his neighbors (and eyes the rest of Europe).
Give Ukraine what it needs to win now — before it’s too late.