WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -
Senior U.S. officials have acknowledged that the United States and its allies are considering whether to provide Ukraine with new fighter jets and the training needed to operate them, a move that would dramatically expand Western involvement in the war with Russia.
Gen. Charles Brown, chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, said that although he would not speculate what type of aircraft might be transferred, discussions are ongoing about how to reinforce Ukraine’s fleet, including with new planes. The Ukrainian air force has been outgunned by Russia, sparingly flying an assortment of MiG jets and other Cold War-era planes.
Brown said there are several possibilities, including American-made fighters or some made in Europe. Options include the Gripen fighter made in Sweden, the Rafale made in France, and the Eurofighter Typhoon, which is built by a consortium of companies in several countries.
“It’ll be something non-Russian, I can probably tell you that,” Brown said during an appearance at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. “But I can’t tell you exactly what it’s going to be.”
The discussion marks a departure from earlier in the war, when the Biden administration ruled out facilitating a deal what would have sent some of Poland’s MiG fighters to Ukraine in exchange for U.S.-manufactured F-16s. Pentagon officials said in March that such a proposal was not “tenable” and raised the possibility that participating in the swap could exacerbate tensions. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that European allies had a “green light” to send planes to Ukraine, but that the United States wanted to avoid direct conflict with Russia.
The prospect of training Ukrainian pilots to operate new aircraft already has traction in Congress; last week the House voted to dedicate $100 million to the endeavor as part of its version of the annual defense authorization bill. Thus far, however, Pentagon leaders have declined to endorse such a plan.
Adding any modern fighter jets to Ukraine’s military would mark a massive upgrade. Ukrainian officials have, for months, sought ways to bolster the country’s air force, which has flown sparingly during the war and must maneuver around Russian surface-to-air missiles.

Russia Says It Destroyed 4
HIMARS Launchers

Meanwhile on Friday, Russia’s defense ministry said its forces had destroyed four U.S.-supplied high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) in Ukraine earlier this month.
Between July 5-20, “four launchers and one reloading vehicle for the U.S.-made multiple launch rocket systems (HIMARS) were destroyed,” it said in a daily briefing.
Kyiv rejected Moscow’s claims, calling them “fakes” designed to undermine the West’s support for Ukraine.
Kyiv has hailed the arrival of eight HIMARS in Ukraine as a possible gamechanger for the course of the war, now about to enter its sixth month.
The advanced weapons are more precise and offer a longer range than other artillery systems, allowing Kyiv to strike Russian targets and weapons depots further behind the front lines.
Moscow has accused the West of dragging out the conflict by supplying Kyiv with more arms, and said the supply of longer-range weapons justifies Russia’s attempts to expand control over more Ukrainian territory, beyond the eastern Donbas region, for its own protection.
On July 6, just days after the first HIMARS arrived in Ukraine, Russia’s defence ministry said it had destroyed two of them, releasing a video of the alleged strike.
Ukraine has rejected Russia’s claims and said it was using the U.S.-supplied arms to inflict “devastating blows” on Russian forces.
Serhiy Leshchenko, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, said on Friday that Ukraine continued to use HIMARS to “cause numerous losses to the aggressor state.”
“Russia is trying to stop the supply of weapons from the West and intimidate Ukraine’s allies with the fictional power of Russia’s armed forces,” he said in a media briefing.
This week Kyiv has used HIMARS to strike a crucial bridge across the Dnipro river in Russian-controlled parts of the southern Kherson region, punching huge