Boris: Offer all our fighter jets to Ukraine

–Reuters

LONDON - Boris Johnson urged the UK to offer all its fighter jets and tanks to Ukraine today after Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered an emotional address to MPs and Peers in Westminster Hall.

The ex-PM said the ‘best use’ for the UK’s 100 Typhoon jets and similar stocks of Challenger tanks was in the battle against Russian aggression. But while No.10 had already pledged to send some tanks, it has held back on jets, warning that training pilots could take years.

The call came after the Ukrainian president was given a rapturous reception at the Palace of Westminster on his first visit to Britain since the invasion.

Watched by Rishi Sunak, and with Johnson in the audience, Zelenskyy insisted that more help will be needed to defeat the Russian aggressors. He presented Speaker Lindsay Hoyle with a helmet signed by one of Kyiv’s top pilots and appealed for the UK to supply ‘powerful’ aircraft - after Sunak announced that Britain will train forces in how to fly them.

The message on the helmet reads: ‘‘We have freedom, give us wings to protect it.’’

Amid splits within Nato on how far to go in suppling air power, Zelenskyy added: ‘‘Combat aircraft for Ukraine, wings for freedom.’’

Zelenskyy said he had come on behalf of the ‘brave’ who were ‘in the trenches under enemy artillery fire’.

‘‘We know Russia will lose. We really know that victory will change the world.’’

Zelenskyy singled out Johnson for praise for helping unite the international community behind Ukraine when it seemed ‘impossible’.

‘‘The people of the United Kingdom and their honourable representatives, all the people of England and Scotland, of Wales and Northern Ireland, of all the lands which have been home to brave souls since Europe came into existence,’’ Zelenskyy said.