By Biodun Busari

The President of the United States Joe Biden has ruled out sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine in its war against Russia.

Biden made this known at the White House on Monday when reporters asked about the probability of sending warplanes to the war-beleaguered country.  

The resolve was reached despite Russia stepping up its attacks to try and break Kyiv’s tenacity, according to New York Post on Tuesday.

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Germany, last week, promised to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and the US followed suit to send American-built Abrams tanks.

But, German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz said the West will not allow NATO to be dragged into a war with Russia. He also said warplanes will not be deployed to Ukraine.

Defending Biden’s stance, John Kirby, US national security council coordinator for strategic communications, said Washington was already providing billions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine.

“What I can tell you is that there’s a lot of capability that is being sent, and will be sent in the coming weeks and months,” Kirby said.

“The kinds of capabilities that we know will be critical to helping Ukrainians again in the fighting now in the wintertime, as well as the kind of fighting that we expect that they’re going to be doing in the spring.”