Ukrainian officials have urged U.S. Congress members to press President Joe Biden's administration to send F-16 jet fighters to Kyiv, saying the aircraft would boost Ukraine's ability to hit Russian missile units with U.S.-made rockets, lawmakers said.
The lobbying came over the weekend on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in talks between Ukrainian officials, including Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, and Democrats and Republicans from the Senate and House of Representatives.
"They told us that they want (F-16s) to suppress enemy air defenses so they could get their drones" beyond Russian front lines, Sen. Mark Kelly, a former astronaut who flew U.S. Navy fighters in combat, said on Saturday evening.