The U.K. says it will start training Ukrainian pilots to fly advanced Western jets.
In a major step forward for his nation's defense against Russian aggression, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in London today to meet with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and deliver a speech to the British parliament.
After the meeting with P.M. Sunak at Downing Street, Zelensky thanked parliament "in advance, for powerful British planes," adding that Britain's contribution to the war effort would be decisive in defeating Vladimir Putin's invading forces.
Zelensky will also meet with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris later today, where German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will join them.
The Ukrainian president will then travel to Brussels, where he'll meet with more European Union leaders tomorrow.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Britain has made "no final decision" on supplying Ukraine with fighter jets.
Sunak, however, has directed his defense minister, Ben Wallace, to decide which jets Britain "may be able to send." Saying that "any delivery would take time," a government spokesman said training Ukrainian pilots will begin in the spring.
The Journal also notes that "the U.K. has been one of Ukraine’s most hawkish allies. It has been at the forefront of a number of issues; the U.K. was the first to pledge modern battle tanks, a move followed by other allies in subsequent weeks. Last year, it was the first European nation to equip the Ukrainian army with antitank missiles."
Jack Watling, a land warfare expert at a British think tank, somewhat quizzically told the Journal that "the U.K. can do things and the U.S. can keep distant from that" — meaning, in the Journal's words, that "while the U.S. must worry about escalating the conflict when it supplies more arms, the same constraints don’t necessarily apply to Britain."
Yet the U.K.'s decision to supply Ukraine with fighter jets — essentially a fait accompli, based on the Journal's reporting — was clearly made in conjunction with the United States.
Great Britain most certainly would not have "gone rogue" on NATO's leading member. Just as clearly, it follows that Putin is rather unlikely to see Britain as having fewer "constraints" than the U.S. when it comes to "escalating the conflict" — subsequent to Putin's unrelenting escalations.
As this site noted only two days ago, "fighter jets for Ukraine, another requisite element of kicking Russia back to its borders," will soon materialize as another development in the West's incremental military assistance to Ukraine.
My belief then was that the shipment of the longer-range, U.S. Army Tactical Missile System (ACACMS) would precede that of fighter jets, but either order of advanced munitions for Ukraine is most welcome. And President Zelensky said so.