Tanks, Not Fighter Jets, Will Help Ukraine in Counteroffensive: Jake Sullivan

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington on Dec. 12, 2022. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a CNN Town Hall on Thursday that F-16 fighter jets are not the primary tool needed for the current fight in Ukraine against Russia.

Sullivan said Ukraine is preparing a major counteroffensive.

“From our perspective, F-16s are not the key capability for that offensive,“ he said. ”It is the stuff that we are moving rapidly to the front lines now.”

Sullivan went on to say that “F-16s are not a question for the short-term fight. F-16s are a question for the long-term defense of Ukraine, and that’s a conversation that President Biden and President Zelenskyy had.”

Sullivan did not elaborate on that conversation.

Since the start of the war, the United States has given $32 billion in military assistance to Ukraine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday.

The assistance has consisted of a Patriot air-defense battery; 90 Stryker Armored Personnel Carriers; over 8,500 Javelin anti-armor systems; 38 HIMARS; 31 Abrams tanks; eight National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) and other key air-defense capabilities; 1,600 Stinger anti-aircraft systems; 109 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles; 232 howitzers; and more than 2 million rounds of artillery ammunition.

Nonetheless, both Democrat and Republican lawmakers have called on the United States to send Ukraine fighter jets, something Biden has refused to do.

Bipartisan Push

Last week, Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine), Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) signed a letter to Biden, asking him to send fighter jets to Ukraine.

“The provision of such aircraft is necessary to help Ukraine protect its airspace, particularly in light of renewed Russian offensives and considering the expected increase in large-scale combat operations,” they wrote, according to Politico.

The lawmakers insisted that “F-16s or similar fourth generation fighter aircraft would provide Ukraine with a highly mobile platform from which to target Russian air-to-air missiles and drones, to protect Ukrainian ground forces as they engage Russian troops, as well as to engage Russian fighters for contested air superiority.”

However, given that the Biden administration has previously objected to sending certain military equipment, such as Abrams tanks, only to eventually reverse course, it is possible the United States could eventually give Ukraine F-16s.

“The president was advised by his military,“ Sullivan said. ”Abrams tanks, the American tank, doesn’t make sense for this fight. What they really needed were Leopard tanks, German tanks that a bunch of countries in Europe own. But the Germans said, ‘We won’t provide our tanks unless you, the United States, provide your tanks.’”

“And President Biden said, ‘if me providing Abrams tanks, even if it’s not the most sensible military move, will help unlock German tanks to get to the front lines and also will sustain alliance unity, I will do it,’” Sullivan continued. “I tell that particular story as it relates to F-16s because these decisions are not just people sitting around and say thumbs up, thumbs down. A wide variety of factors go into the decision to provide a particular system, to train up the Ukrainians on it and then to get it into the fight.”