Britain does not believe it is practical to send its fighter jets to Ukraine, UK PM Rishi Sunak’s spokesman said today, after Kyiv said it would press for the supply of such Western planes.
He said that the UK’s fighter jets are extremely advanced and it would take months for the Ukrainian pilots to learn how to fly. “Given that, we believe it is impractical to send these aircraft to Ukraine,” the spokesman told reporters.
“We will continue to discuss with our allies what we think is the right approach,” the spokesman added.
Meanwhile, Poland’s deputy defence minister said today that the issue of the possible transfer of Polish Air Force F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine is not the subject of any “official discussion”.
“At the moment there is no official discussion about the transfer of Polish F-16s” to Ukraine, Wojciech Skurkiewicz told AFP. “The subject does not exist.”
Poland has 40 US-made F-16 fighter jets.
These statements come the day after those of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who underlined that “all our steps aimed at strengthening the defence forces of Ukraine, we coordinate with our NATO partners”.
“As a few months ago, under the (Soviet-designed) MIGs, any new air force will be deployed and eventually transferred in cooperation with NATO countries. We will act in full coordination,” he said.
Yesterday US President Joe Biden categorically opposed the idea of sending US F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.
On the part of the European Union, Berlin has already categorically rejected the idea of sending fighter jets, while French President Emmanuel Macron estimated that “by definition, nothing is excluded”, assuring that the Ukrainians have not yet submitted such a request to him.
The French president also spoke with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who had already floated the idea of sending F-16s to Ukraine, stressing that there is no “taboo” on this issue, but it would be “a big step”.
