Bild: Ukraine-West ties run hot amid reluctance of allies to supply aircraft to Kyiv

Relations between Ukraine and its Western partners are getting strained as none of the allies wants to supply military aircraft to Kyiv, despite the Ukrainian army’s desperate need for them.

A scandal erupted on this ground in Germany after journalists learned of the government's intentions to sell Eurofighter jets to Saudi Arabia, which Ukraine has long been asking for, according to the newspaper Bild.

The newspaper said the Bundeswehr (German army) has 138 Eurofighter combat aircraft, but the federal government refuses to create even a training programme for Ukrainian pilots, let alone possible future deliveries. Instead, Chancellor Olaf Scholz's office is "pushing" the sale of 48 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.

"I think this is fundamentally wrong. We cannot deny Ukraine weapons and at the same time supply state-of-the-art weapons to dictatorships and autocracies," the leader of the Green Party and chairman of the European Committee, Anton Hofreiter, told the newspaper.

Bild stresses that the issue of the supply of fighters slows down not only Germany but also other countries.

German journalists wonder whether the West even wants Ukraine to win this war.