Macron Does Not Rule Out Supplying Aircraft to Ukraine but Says It Is Not a Priority

Emmanuel Macron, President of France, has said that he prefers supplying weapons that are "more useful" and "faster" than military aircraft as part of France's military aid for Ukraine.

Fighter aircraft can "under no circumstances" be delivered "in the coming weeks", Macron explained early on Friday morning, as reports BFM TV, a French news channel.

He also said, "I am not ruling anything out."

He explained that supplying aircraft would not "meet today's needs" and that it was better to help Ukraine with other priorities, such as Caesar guns. France announced last week that it will supply the guns to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy insisted that Ukraine needs fighter aircraft to end the war with Russia during his European visits on Wednesday and Thursday this week.

The French President told the press that his "thorough and detailed" discussion with President Zelenskyy, which took place on Wednesday in Paris, had underscored that the priority is "doing everything to help [Ukraine] resist in the coming weeks" and "conducting appropriate operations in the spring and summer, if we then want to also be able to carry out diplomatic actions."

"It is essential that the allies give priority to the equipment that is the most useful" and "the fastest", Macron added, saying that the Caesar guns and the MAMBA medium-range ground-air defence systems supplied by France met these criteria.

He said it may be necessary to "ramp up" deliveries of "artillery systems that can be used to launch ground offensives or defend" existing Ukrainian positions and promised to "work on this in the coming days".

Background: So far there has been no commitment to sending fighter jets to Ukraine among the EU countries.