Volodymyr Zelensky has just addressed a packed Westminster Hall thanking Britons for their ‘grit and character’. Ukraine’s triumph would be the ‘greatest victory of our lifetimes’, he said, and show ‘the new reality of the free world’ – that ‘any aggressor is going to lose’. He pleaded with MPs for fighter jets, presenting them with the helmet of one of Ukraine’s most successful pilots. On it was written: ‘We have freedom, give us wings to protect it.’ He finished his speech saying: ‘I will be leaving parliament today, thanking you in advance for powerful English planes.’
Boris Johnson – who has focused most of his post-No. 10 interventions on Ukraine – was in the audience (and was thanked in Zelensky’s speech) but it’s not yet clear if they’ll meet today.
And the subtext of his trip? Zelensky said he wants to go ‘deep into occupied territories’ but as my colleague Svitalana Morenets explains, Ukraine doesn’t believe it can do this without bombers. So far, its allies have sent guns and (most recently) 300 tanks but the US has drawn the line at fighter jets. Johnson, now settling into his post-premiership role as a Ukraine defence campaigner, has been calling for Zelensky to be given jets.
Today, Sunak has taken what Ukrainians see as a step towards this goal. The UK has become the first foreign country to agree to train Ukrainian fighter jet pilots – who currently have Soviet-era aircraft not capable of dropping the bunker-busting bombs that Kyiv thinks are needed to dislodge occupying Russian forces.
So far, Downing Street has suggested it is ‘not practical’ to provide RAF Typhoons or F-35s, but Zelensky has been openly saying that he will need aircraft to win the war. This, Svitalana says, is likely to be his private message to the Prime Minister and King.
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