NEW DELHI, May 15: As Ukraine is preparing to adequately equip itself with a counter-offensive against Russia, its president Volodymyr Zelensky after his visits to Germany and France on Monday arrived in London for talks with the UK prime minster Rishi Sunak seeking fighter jets.
His trip comes as China’s special envoy began a visit to Ukraine, Russia and several other European countries, as Beijing attempts to broker a “political settlement” to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Standing next to Sunak at the U.K. Prime Minister’s official country residence, Chequers, the Ukrainian President said, “Today we spoke about the jets — a very important topic for us.” “Because we can’t control the sky,” he said, adding, “We want to create this jets coalition.”
Sunak highlighted the U.K.’s program to train Ukrainians to fly jets — with the ultimate goal of equipping the country with an air force that can fly NATO standard F-16 jets. The absence of NATO-compatible jets has been a significant disadvantage for Kyiv, whose pilots are used to flying MiG-29s and Sukhoi jets. Zelensky had made a similar public request for jets during a surprise visit to London in February this year, when he addressed members from both Houses of the U.K.
Ukrainian pilots will get some basic in the U.K., starting this summer, Downing Street said on Monday while the U.K. works with other countries to give Kyiv F-16 jets, the statement said. However, for now, the transfer of jets to Kyiv will have to wait. Downing Street announced that the U.K. would, over the next few months, send Kyiv hundreds of air defence missiles and additional unmanned aerial systems including hundreds of new long-range (greater than 200 km range) attack drones. The U.K. last week confirmed that it had given Kyiv long-range “Storm Shadow” cruise missiles, the first country to do so, according to Downing Street.
Zelensky said his country was preparing “very important counter-offensive steps.” “We really need some more time …not too much” he said about his country’s preparedness. Sunak told reporters that he and Zelensky had discussed U.K.’s support to Ukraine, “not just for today, but into the future as well” adding that they had discussed long-term security arrangements that need to be in place, without going into the details of these.
“It’s important for the Kremlin to also know that we’re not going away,” Sunak said. Ukraine is expected to be high on the agenda at this week’s Council of Europe meeting in Reykjavik and at the May 19-21 G-7 meeting of advanced economies in Hiroshima.
(Manas Dasgupta)