France open to sending fighter jets to Ukraine but Biden rules out similar move

Emmanuel Macron lays out conditions for any such move

French president Emmanuel Macron has said he was open to sending fighter jets to Ukraine, as his US counterpart Joe Biden ruled out such a move.

Mr Macron did not say whether warplanes were on the agenda for his meeting in Paris on Tuesday with visiting Ukrainian defence minister Oleksii Reznikov, though he did say Ukraine would have to ask for them.

He also laid out several conditions under which France might consider supplying jets, including that the supplies would not escalate tensions, nor be used “to touch Russian soil”, and that the move would not “weaken the capacities of the French army”.