"No and that's it. Joe Biden dedicated neither more nor less than the forceful monosyllable of denial to answer last night the question of whether the United States will provide f-16 fighters to Ukraine.
The answer comes to lower the expectations created by France and the Netherlands about a possible shipment of combat planes to the forces of Volodímir Zelenski. Both President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte left that door open on Monday. But Biden "doesn't" want to.
The absolute need for agreement within NATO must be taken into account, as well as the leadership position of the North American superpower. However, it is not ruled out that Washington gives free rein to the dispatch of fighters by other allies. Neither is a change in position similar to the one we saw a few days ago regarding the delivery of tanks by the United States itself.
From the outset, BIden's position comes to ratify the one that Washington adopted in March of last year after a certain mess and some contradictions between allies, including a dispute with Poland, in response to Zelenski's insistent demands for air support.
The Ukrainian president, harassed by the latest and aggressive Russian attacks and encouraged by the massive dispatch of tanks by a good number of allies, rescued that demand - for the umpteenth time - last week.
Will have to see.
The agreement on the battle tanks was difficult. Germany said it would not send its coveted Leopard 2s if the US and other NATO partners did not send their own tanks. But in the Pentagon and the White House they said that the powerful American Abrams were not the most suitable to take to the Ukraine: the operation would take months, it was expensive and both the training of pilots and the maintenance of the platoons were difficult. Everything was a problem.
But suddenly Washington seemed to understand that Germany, weighed down as always by its past, needed the support of the US in such a difficult decision for the country. And, in the end, Biden gave his arm to twist.
Hours after Foreign Minister Olaf Scholl advanced an agreement to immediately transfer a batch of his Leopards, Biden personally announced the delivery of 31 US Abrams as soon as possible (that is, in a few months).
The matter of the fighters is presented from the outset more complicated. But the US president has yet to develop the response he gave last night. His "no" is clear, no doubt. But it would be strange if he and his team did not explain a little more in the next few hours.
