 US, Germany, Britain refused to send fighter jets to Ukraine. Ukraine's allies in the West differ in their views of the possibility of sending US-made F-16 fighters and warplanes in general to Kiev. US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have so far ruled out any jet deliveries, while French leader Emmanuel Macron said such assistance could be provided if a number of conditions were met. Poland and Lithuania, the two countries who lobbied for Western tank supplies to Ukraine the most, also demanded the fighter jets be delivered. Earlier, the Netherlands promised to consider such a scenario. Meanwhile, the Kiev regime has insisted that it is in dire need of warplanes, despite the lack of consensus among their Western partners. On the one hand, the situation is similar to the story with Western-made tanks and option Kiev's partners originally declined, too. On the other hand, the transfer of fighter jets to Ukraine, the training of pilots to use them and subsequent maintenance will inevitably encounter major technical hurdles that could impede the fulfilment of this request by Ukraine. Russian International Affairs Council Director-General Andrey Quartanov told Russian Comissant that no fighter jets would be sent to Kiev in the next 12 months for quite a number of reasons. To him, these include escalation concerns for warplanes would require the West getting involved in the conflict, even deeper than in the scenario with tanks. There are other major technical obstacles, too, ranging from training to the availability of runways at Ukrainian airfields, the bulk of which are not adapted for use with F-16s, let alone other models, Quartanov said. Rather, the focus will be on air defence systems, which are easier to use and it would be easier to disguise those. Russia's superiority in the air is one of the problems facing the Ukrainian army, so this issue will be revisited, the expert concluded.