Biden says he will talk with Zelenskyy after rejecting Kyiv request for jets

President Biden answered a question Tuesday about Ukrainian requests for additional U.S. weapons by saying he is "going to talk" to his counterpart in Kyiv, a pledge that came one day after his flat "no" when he was asked about America sending fighter jets to Ukraine.

En route to New York for an event highlighting domestic infrastructure legislation he signed in late 2021, Biden was asked by reporters if he had spoken to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently and what he would tell him about requests for further military aide in Ukraine's war effort against Russia. Biden said only that he would talk to Zelenskyy and did not elaborate further.

Tuesday’s comments followed Biden’s initial rejection a day earlier of talk that the U.S. might supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets. POLITICO reported Monday that there have not yet been any serious, high-level discussion about F-16s for Kyiv.

Biden’s comments come as Ukraine continues to push NATO to send fighter jets, a proposition that has yet to gain broad support from Ukraine’s western allies — though France and Poland have expressed an openness to sharing jets.