F-16s could be a game-changer

It remains to be seen whether the Biden administration’s overdue decision to finally authorise delivery of F-16 fighters to Kyiv will be the game-changer in the war that has been forecast. But it should help reinforce Ukraine’s ability to deal with pitiless attacks like that on Saturday when Russian missiles rained on the main square in the historic city of Chernihiv, 145km north of Kyiv, killing seven people, including a six-year-old girl, and wounding 144 others, during the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s observance of the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. That did not deter Vladimir Putin’s forces from launching their onslaught. It underlined the urgency of Kyiv getting what it has been pleading for since the start of the war in February last year.

The US decision to authorise delivery to Ukraine of dozens of F-16s, offered by Denmark and Holland, was announced by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Delivery of the fighters has been made contingent on Ukrainian crew completing the necessary training, which is unlikely to be before the end of the year. Criticism is mounting in the US and within NATO of what The Wall Street Journal termed the administration’s “indecision” and “dithering” over the F-16s. With Ukrainian forces in the midst of their crucial counteroffensive, the paper warned: “The bill for this indecision is coming due, and the tragedy is more Ukrainian casualties and a more fraught counteroffensive. The dithering also erodes political support at home, as more Americans start to wonder what the US is accomplishing.”

Such criticism is valid, even in view of the enormous help the US and allies have given Ukraine. Initial apprehensions that the appearance of F-16s would provoke the Russian tyrant into even worse malice have been overtaken. Yet the F-16s have come so late that they are unlikely to help Kyiv in its current counteroffensive. If the US wants to avoid Ukraine becoming a long, ugly quagmire of a war, the sooner the F-16s are deployed and pilots are trained the better.