Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov has said the reluctance of Kyiv’s Western allies to send jet fighters to aid in the battle against Russian forces will “cost us more lives,” even as he repeated warnings that Moscow is poised to launch a major new offensive in the nearly yearlong war.
“I am sure that we will win this war. I am sure we will liberate all the occupied territories,” Reznikov told a Kyiv news conference on February 5. But without Western supplies of jet fighters, “it will cost us more lives.”
Western leaders have said it is not practical to send such jets to Ukraine given the amount of time it would take to train pilots and maintenance crews and amid fears of widening the conflict.
#Ukraine: A Russian 2S19M2 Msta-SM2 self-propelled 152mm howitzer was taken out of action by a Ukrainian M982 Excalibur strike in #Kherson Oblast. pic.twitter.com/4zwQG1kGBg
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) February 4, 2023
