NEW YORK, February 24. /TASS/. Deliveries of F-16 fighter jets to Kiev are a long-term issue, US President Joe Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky have discussed the topic, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN in an interview.

"F-16s are not a question for the short-term fight. F-16s are a question for the longterm defense of Ukraine and that's a conversation that President Biden and President Zelensky had," he said.

On January 31, Biden said that Washington would not transfer F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. Later, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that the country had offered Kiev to start training marines and fighter pilots on NATO jets. However, Sunak's representative later clarified that the government had not made a decision on the transfer of the fighter jets to Ukraine and that the issue was being considered from various sides. In turn, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius have repeatedly stated that Germany was not going to supply fighter jets to Ukraine.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that Moscow perceived Western arms deliveries to the Ukrainian armed forces as a growing involvement of Western countries in the Ukrainian conflict.