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UK says ‘not practical’ to give Ukraine British
fighter jets
Downing Street says it will continue to ‘listen
carefully’ to Ukrainian requests for support in war with Russia.
BY MATT
HONEYCOMBE-FOSTER
JANUARY 31,
2023 4:50 PM CET
LONDON —
The British government has ruled out sending fighter jets to Ukraine for the
time being.
Kyiv has in
recent days stepped up its requests for jets after European allies agreed to
supply battle tanks to aid the fight against Russian forces.
But Prime
Minister Rishi Sunak’s official spokesperson told reporters Tuesday that the
U.K.’s F35 fighter jets are “extremely sophisticated and take months to learn
how to fly.”
And he
added: “Given that, we believe it is not practical to send those jets into
Ukraine. Obviously we will continue to provide and accelerate our military
support to Ukraine and to listen carefully to their requests.”
Pressed on
whether there was anything the U.K. could do to more quickly prepare F35s for
Ukrainian use or to encourage other nations to supply Kyiv with fighter jets,
the spokesperson said it is “length of time it takes to learn how to use what
are very complex pieces of equipment that is the limiting factor in this case.”
“But we
will explore what more we can do to support Ukraine,” they added. “It’s simply
the view that it’s not currently practical to send fighter jets.”
The
decision comes just hours after U.S. President Joe Biden appeared to rule out
his own country supplying Ukraine with its F-16 fighters for now.
France has
said it is considering Ukraine’s request to provide fighter-jet pilot training,
but while the country’s President Emmanuel Macron has said “nothing is excluded
in principle” when it comes to support for Ukraine, he has warned that any
fresh help must “not be escalatory.”
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