Biden's government officially announced that it agreed with its allies to provide Ukraine with F- 16 fighter jets and supported the plan to train Ukrainian pilots. Subsequently, Biden announced that he would provide Ukraine with a package of new military support including "Hippo" multi-barrel rockets, "Javelin" anti-tank missiles, armored vehicles and other related military materials, with a value of about 375 million US dollars.

With the escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, western countries have continuously sent weapons and equipment to Ukraine, provided military assistance such as personnel training and intelligence support, and "supported and cheered" Ukraine. The Biden administration changed its previous hesitant attitude on the F- 16 fighter plane and announced a new round of military assistance to Ukraine, indicating that the US military assistance policy to Ukraine is undergoing a breakthrough change.

From the perspective of future development, the United States will continue to increase its military assistance to Ukraine under the pretext of maintaining the balance of the Russian-Ukrainian war situation, which will not only trigger a series of chain reactions, arouse strong opposition from Russia, but also bring more variables to regional security.

The attitude of the United States towards Ukrainian military aid has undergone a major change.

Russia frequently dispatched air forces and used its air superiority to continuously bomb Ukraine. The intensity of air strikes has increased the pressure on the Ukrainian battlefield, and the demand for air superiority has become more urgent. To this end, the Ukrainian government and Zelensky lobbied western countries on various occasions, trying to get western countries to expand their military assistance to Ukraine. Among them, they repeatedly named the American F- 16 fighter, which attracted the attention of the outside world. When or whether the United States and the West can provide fighter aid to Ukraine has become a hot topic in the recent Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

From the performance point of view, the F- 16 fighter has been the main force of the US Air Force for a long time, and it has been widely used in the Gulf War, the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War, with good performance.

More than 2,000 aircraft of the US Air Force are still in service and exported to more than 20 countries and regions around the world. It is one of the best-selling models of American arms dealers in the world. Ukraine believes that compared with other aircraft types, F- 16 is the most suitable for the needs of the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield. It is not only cost-effective, but also convenient for pilots to train and operate, which can quickly improve the overall strength of the Ukrainian air force and even regain part of Ukraine's air superiority.

Under the strong appeal of Ukraine, as early as a few months ago, European countries such as Poland, the Netherlands and Slovakia publicly indicated that they would assist Ukraine with F- 16 fighter jets. However, because the F- 16 fighter is an American product, and limited by the confidentiality of the core technology, any movement of the aircraft needs to be approved by the United States.

Therefore, in the past few months, many European countries planning to provide Ukraine with F- 16 fighters have been waiting for the approval of the US government. Without the authorization of the United States, European countries such as the Netherlands have the will and ability to provide F- 16 fighters to Uzbekistan, but they cannot implement them.

For the United States, it has been very cautious about whether it can provide fighters to Ukraine. The United States had previously worried that once fighter aid was provided to Ukraine, these fighters were likely to be used to attack targets in Russia. The result is likely to stimulate Russia to come up with more powerful weapons, leading to an escalation of the crisis and an expansion of the war, which is difficult to end.

In addition, the United States' approval to provide Ukraine with F- 16 fighters is likely to touch Russia's bottom line, which is regarded by Russia as the direct participation of the United States in the war, leading to intensified confrontation between the United States and Russia. Under this consideration, the United States has been delaying the decision to provide F- 16 fighters on the grounds of providing more urgent ammunition and other military equipment to Ukraine, and has also avoided talking about this issue on many occasions.

This time, the United States let go of the issue of providing F- 16 fighters to Ukraine, which is undoubtedly a major policy breakthrough. It not only shows the willingness to strengthen military assistance to Ukraine, but also opens the door for those countries that are interested in providing F- 16 fighters to Ukraine.

It can be predicted that once Ukraine obtains these fighters, its operational advantage in the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield will be greatly improved, thus promoting the future development of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in favor of Ukraine.

Reduce the political and public pressure on allies.

This time, the attitude of the United States in providing military assistance to Ukraine, especially the F- 16 fighter plane, has changed greatly. The most fundamental reason is the public opinion and political pressure from foreign allies. During this period, it is obvious that the United States and its European allies have had great differences on the issue of aiding Ukraine's advanced weapons.

Prior to this, Poland, Slovakia and other countries "took the lead" in announcing the dispatch of several MIG -29 fighters to Ukraine; Subsequently, Britain and the Netherlands formed an "international alliance" to actively help Ukraine promote the "procurement" of F- 16 fighters; Even Germany agreed to provide Ukraine with the "Leopard 2" main battle tank despite the doubts of international public opinion.

Compared with these European countries, the United States has always been more vocal and less rainy in military assistance. According to the documents of the U.S. Department of Defense, since February 2022, the United States has promised Ukraine a total of 36.9 billion U.S. dollars in security assistance, but many projects have not been put in place, just staying in words and paper. For example, although the United States has long announced that it will provide more than 30 M 1 tanks to Ukraine, these tanks are still being produced in factories, and when they will be delivered, the United States has been silent.

In addition, some mainstream media in the United States even made some "desperate" remarks, such as complaining about Zelensky's headstrong and adventurism. The US Congress even asked Biden's government to audit the Pentagon's aid expenditure to Ukraine, which was dissatisfied with European allies and demanded that the United States show sincerity and take substantive measures to help Ukraine.

In addition, the United States agreed to provide Ukraine with F- 16 fighters, which is also the need for the development of the Russian-Ukrainian war situation. After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, although the United States and western countries have been trying to support Ukraine's armed forces, they have not achieved the expected results, especially the "summer counterattack" of Ukraine as scheduled. An important reason given by Ukraine is that there are not enough fighters to ensure the safety of frontier positions.

In this case, the United States increased its military assistance to Ukraine, especially on the F- 16 fighter plane, in response to this demand of Ukraine, and urged Ukraine not to continue to delay and start a "summer counterattack" as soon as possible in order to seize the dominance of the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield in the future.

Trigger a chain reaction, but it is more symbolic.

The change of attitude of the United States on the issue of military aid to Ukraine has caused a series of chain reactions in many countries, including Ukraine. For example, on the day Biden announced that he would provide Ukrainian F- 16 fighters, Zelensky quickly tweeted: "I welcome the historic decision of the United States (and the President of the United States) to support the international fighter alliance."

In addition, many countries, including Portugal, Britain, France, the United States, the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium, formed a fighter alliance, and decided to replace their own F- 16 by ordering F-35s and transfer the surplus F- 16 fighters to Ukraine. It is estimated that 70 F- 16 fighters can finally be promised to Ukraine.

Under the influence of the change of American military aid attitude, even Japan and South Korea are "ready to move". When meeting with Zelensky, Japanese Prime Minister kishida fumio said that he would provide 100 military trucks and 30,000 military rations to Ukraine, and agreed to use hospitals in Japan's Defense Ministry to receive Ukrainian wounded soldiers for treatment.

After talks with Zelensky, South Korean President Yin Xiyue also announced that he had begun to study the proposal of providing Ukraine with non-lethal weapons and equipment, including army combat engineering vehicles, portable mine detectors, military ambulances, mobile X-ray machines and air defense radars, so as to enhance the logistics support and reconnaissance capabilities of the Ukrainian army.

Russia reacted strongly to the initiatives of the above countries. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said before the G7 summit that the G7 summit was actually a meeting to contain Russia. Western countries are "playing with fire" in supplying weapons to Ukraine, which will only prolong the conflict, not benefit the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations, and will also have a negative impact. Russian officials such as Anatoly Antonov, Russian ambassador to the United States, warned that hostile measures by the United States and other countries would bring "great risks".

If western countries insist on providing Ukraine with American F- 16 fighters, Russia will take corresponding measures according to specific needs. From the perspective of future development, the increase of military assistance from the United States and western countries to Ukraine will certainly have an important impact on the future direction of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and even lead to greater regional tension, which requires careful response from all parties.

However, we must also realize that this time the United States agreed to provide Ukraine with F- 16 fighter jets, which is more of a gesture and has very limited impact on the existing battlefield situation in Russia and Ukraine.

On the one hand, because the export price of F- 16 fighters is relatively expensive, no matter whether the United States or European countries threaten to help Ukraine, even if they really help, the number will not be too much. Faced with a large number of Russian advanced fighters such as Su -35 and Su -30SM, it is obviously "a drop in the bucket" and will not fundamentally change the reality that Russia currently occupies an overwhelming advantage. On the other hand, the Ukrainian army has been using weapons and equipment left over from the Soviet era. For example, the Air Force is mainly equipped with Su Huoyi or MiG fighters, and its logistics support system is completely different from that of the West.

Without a complete logistics support system, the performance of weapons and equipment will certainly not be able to play. In addition, Ukrainian pilots also drove Soviet fighters before the war.

It will take at least four or five months from the beginning of learning to mastering the driving skills of the F- 16 fighter. By then, the situation in Russia and Ukraine has changed dramatically. Therefore, under the constraints of these factors, the United States agreed to provide Ukraine with F- 16 fighters, which could not produce great practical value.