The UK will explore the possibility of sending fighter jets to Ukraine, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Downing Street office said Wednesday, adding it would only be a "long-term" solution.
"The prime minister has tasked the defense secretary with investigating what jets we might be able to give but, to be clear, this is a long-term solution rather than a short-term capability, which is what Ukraine needs most now," Sunak's spokesman said.
In London for a speech before the House of Commons, Ukraine President Vlodymyr Zelenskyy offered an air force helmet with the message "we have freedom, give us wings to protect it" to Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker of the House of Commons, the lower house of parliament.
Zelenskyy praised Britain and the West for the support and the sanctions they had provided so far in his Westminster Hall speech in London.
Earlier, Britain announced an immediate surge of military deliveries to Ukraine to help it fend off an intensifying Russian offensive and pledged to train its pilots to be able to fly "sophisticated NATO-standard fighter jets in the future."
The government said that was "part of long-term investment in their military" - wording that suggested Britain had not yet shifted its view that providing Kyiv with the fighter jets it has asked for is not the right approach for now.
The move to train pilots was likely to involve simulators rather than advanced Western aircraft and did not mean Britain would soon supply such jets, Justin Bronk, an expert at the RUSI think tank said on Twitter. But it would help pilots now and prepare them for possible future such deliveries, he wrote.
This report was sourced from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.