Britain said it was looking into sending combat aircraft to Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for western fighter jets in an impassioned plea for “wings for freedom” in the UK parliament.
As the Ukrainian president began a European trip that will also include Paris and Brussels, Downing Street said UK defence secretary Ben Wallace had been asked to examine “what jets we might be able to give” Ukraine, But it warned this was a “medium to long-term” solution.
An international debate is raging over how much further the west should go in arming Ukraine and Zelenskyy thanked the UK for its role in cajoling other allies to provide more support.
Speaking to a hero’s welcome in the 11th century Westminster Hall, he said: “I appeal to you and the world: combat aircraft for Ukraine. Wings for freedom.”
The Ukrainian president drew a parallel with Britain’s own defiance of the Nazis in the second world war: “Great Britain, you extended your helping hand when the world had not yet come to understand how to react.”
Zelenskyy later visited King Charles and was due to travel to Paris, where he is set to meet President Emmanuel Macron and the German chancellor Olaf Scholz. He is also expected to attend an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday.
Pressure is mounting on western countries to provide combat jets and Boris Johnson, the former UK prime minister, said the current premier Rishi Sunak should do more to help Kyiv.
“It is time to give the Ukrainians the extra equipment they need to defeat Putin and to restore peace to Ukraine. That means longer-range missiles and artillery,” he said. “It means more tanks. It means planes.
“We have more than 100 Typhoon jets. We have more than 100 Challenger 2 tanks. The best single use for any of these items is to deploy them now for the protection of the Ukrainians.”
Sunak announced on Wednesday that Britain would begin training Ukrainian pilots and travelled with Zelenskyy to the south-west of England to see Ukrainian troops training with Challenger 2 tanks.
The UK tried to dampen expectations that Britain might send Eurofighter Typhoon jets to Ukraine soon, saying they were “complex pieces of machinery” and that it could take five years to train a pilot to fly them.
However, officials said it would take around six months to train already experienced pilots and engineers to fly and service the Typhoon jets. Allowing for logistics, that means they would be unlikely to be operational in Ukraine before early 2024.
The most likely candidate would be so called Tranche 1 or first-generation Eurofighter Typhoons, two dozen of which are due to be retired from service by 2025.
One UK cabinet minister said after the address that “everyone will remember the phrase ‘wings for freedom’ and I don’t see how [Zelenskyy] isn’t going to end up getting what he wants on that”.
Concern is mounting in the west that Ukraine has a narrow window to launch a counteroffensive in the spring, as Russia amasses forces, prompting allies to send heavier equipment such as tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and longer-range weapons.
American officials have acknowledged they may eventually decide to send or greenlight the transfer of F-16s, but for now they say they are too expensive, not easily available and will take significant time to train Ukrainians to fly. Some say that providing the jets to Ukraine risks escalating the conflict with Russia, given their range and capabilities.
Ukrainian officials have said the F-16s could intercept cruise missiles and attack drones that Russia has used to target Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and civilian objects, while providing support for ground forces.
Analysts said the UK would probably train Ukrainian pilots in simulators on Nato standard procedures, cockpit information display, weapon programming formats and tactics.
“The idea [is] that when Ukraine is provided with Nato fighter [jets] at some point, conversion training will take less time,” said Justin Bronk, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think-tank in London.
Ukraine’s air force spokesperson, Yuriy Ignat, said late last year that roughly 50 experienced Ukrainian pilots with English-language skills had been selected and were ready to begin training on western jets. Many of them trained with US forces during military exercises before the war.
The UK’s Foreign Office on Wednesday announced further sanctions against Russia.
“The victory will change the world and this will be a change that the world has long needed,” Zelenskyy said in his speech in Westminster Hall. “After we win together, any aggressor, it doesn’t matter big or small, will know what awaits him if he attacks the international order.”
Additional reporting by Jim Pickard in London, Leila Abboud in Paris and Christopher Miller in Kyiv