The White House National Security Council's strategic communications coordinator, John Kirby, defended the Biden administration's decision not to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, pointing to U.S. aid, including Abrams tanks.

 This is reported by CNN.

 "What I can tell you is that there are many capabilities that are already being deployed and will be deployed in the coming weeks and months. We know that these forces and assets will be critical to helping the Ukrainians in combat again  in the winter, and in the type of combat that we expect them to do," Kirby said.

 Kirby said he believes the decision to send Abrams tanks to the region, announced last week, was not too late, even amid reports that Russia is occupying territory in eastern Ukraine.

 "The decision about tanks - and it was not only a decision of the US, but also of the Germans, and before that of the British - was actually designed to help Ukraine get ahead of the hostilities that we think everyone will see in the spring," he said.

 "So this was one of those cases where we're trying to predict the needs that Ukraine will have when the weather improves -- and we can expect the Russians to try to go on the offensive then," Kirby added.

 On Monday, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, said that the United States does not plan to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.