Why Ukraine needs British war planes

‘We have freedom,’ said Zelensky in his address to Westminster Hall. ‘Give us wings to protect it!’ This sums up the message of his visit to the UK: to thank Britain for the weapons, without which Ukraine would not have survived so far, but to ask for planes. The last time he was in London, he said, he left enjoying delicious English tea. ‘I will be leaving parliament today, thanking you in advance for powerful English planes’. His audience laughed – but Zelensky is certainly not joking.

Zelensky spoke about Ukrainian troops going ‘deep into occupied territory’ but he believes this cannot be done without bombers. Ukraine’s Soviet-era air force is not enough. For Zelensky, this is the next step. So far, the US and its Nato allies have drawn the line at sending jets. Early on in the war, Washington intervened to stop Poland proposing the deployment of aircraft to Kyiv. But the UK has led the world in Ukraine’s defence, sending arms before Russia invaded and training soldiers after the Crimea invasion. So it’s natural for Ukraine to hope that, if the West does send combat aircraft, Britain will be the first to make the argument. Hopefully this is before Putin launches the new offensive in Donbas.

Basic training for fighter pilots takes at least three months. Proper training takes years. So Ukraine needs help now and the news today is that the RAF has agreed to train Ukrainian pilots. A list of pilots who can learn to fly fighter jets was approved by the Ukrainian command in January; airfields are being modernised throughout the country in anticipation. So far Ukrainian pilots have been operating MiG-29 and SU-27 aircraft produced between 1981 and 1991 and fighting at the limit of their capabilities.

Zelensky today gave a gift to Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker: a helmet worn by a fighter pilot described as a Ukrainian ‘ace’. The exploits of Ukrainian fighters became legendary after the February 2022 fight for the capital. At the time, word went around that a single pilot had won six air dogfights on the first day of the Russian invasion: he became known as the ‘Ghost of Kyiv’. It later emerged that the air defence had been mounted by the Ukrainian Air Force’s 40th tactical aviation brigade: they are now, collectively, honored as the ‘Ghost of Kyiv’. The commander of this brigade, Oleksiy Manyushkin, was one of the pilots who signed the helmet given by Zelensky.

Ukraine has not said precisely how it would use more fighter jets. In addition to dogfighting, Kyiv can use jets to strike land and sea targets such as Russian military bases. Fighter jets would be pivotal for any breakthrough operations in Donbas. Fighter jets are also able to shoot down missiles and drones, but Kyiv has made assurances that Russian territory won’t be targeted. This, of course, is the big fear in the West: that something goes wrong and a Nato-owned warplane attacks Russian territory thereby escalating the war. This should strengthen the confidence of Ukraine’s allies that the war won’t be ‘escalated’.

Ukraine survives now because Russia’s air force has (so far) failed to establish air superiority over Ukraine – despite having a significant advantage in both numbers and capabilities. This has allowed Ukrainian pilots to provide much-needed support to the army’s ground forces. But to go further, Ukraine needs air reinforcement. Kyiv hasn’t confirmed how many planes and pilots have been lost in the conflict, but a year’s full-scale war will have taken its toll.

Zelensky did not openly call for aircraft when he spoke in Washington DC and has done so in London because he believes he’s amongst friends (even Keir Starmer was wearing a Ukraine-UK lapel badge). ‘Thank you in advance,’ said Zelensky.

Sunak has responded by tasking defence secretary Ben Wallace with ‘with investigating what jets we might be able to give’, making Britain one of only three countries (along with the Netherlands and Poland) to say it is open to giving Ukraine aircraft. But No. 10 has added a caveat: ‘to be clear, this is a long-term solution.’ 

Long-term solutions don’t work for Ukraine as its soldiers have a war to fight now. Tomorrow Zelensky is heading to Paris to meet Emanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz. He will then finish with a trip to Brussels and give a speech in the European parliament. His hope will be to assemble a coalition of western leaders who support fighter jets being sent to Ukraine – in the short-term, rather than the ten-year timetable that normally accompanies defence procurement.