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Sending fighter jets to Ukraine would drag UK into Russia’s war, defence expert warns

There are concerns Putin would 'lure' warplanes sent by Western countries to cross into Russian territory and give his troops a pretext to escalate conflict

Giving Ukraine fighter jets is “out of the question” and could lead to direct UK involvement in the Russian-Ukraine conflict, a defence expert has warned.

Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, has repeatedly called on Western allies to provide the jets to bolster the country’s air capabilities in the war against Russia.

But both UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, and US President, Joe Biden, have today ruled out sending jets.

While Mr Sunak pledged to accelerate support to enable “decisive gains” against Russian invaders, he believes it is “not practical” to provide Ukraine with British fighter jets.

Downing Street said training Mr Zelensky’s forces on “extremely sophisticated” Typhoons and F-35s would take too long and result in a “prolonged stalemate” in the war that “would only benefit Russia”.

He said they must seize an “opportunity to accelerate UK support” to give Ukraine “the best chance of success and make the most of the window of opportunity where Russian forces were on the back foot”.

Dr Marina Miron, a defence expert at King’s College London, said that the practicalities of providing the jets was not the only issue in the UK’s involvement. The donation of fighter jets, she said, would be seen as a direct threat by Russian President Vladimir Putin, and as a result, dramatically escalate UK involvement in the conflict.

“Logistics and training aside, it would be politically impossible for Nato to send those fighter jets to Ukraine without getting involved directly,” she told i. “Tanks are already kind of borderline. But fighter jets…

“You have to have a lot of trust to give Ukraine fighter jets because if they strike Russia, it’s going to be hell. It will escalate immediately. So giving them fighter jets and long-range missiles is probably out of the question.”

Dr Miron said that giving jets to Ukraine would “absolutely” be seen as a threat by Mr Putin, suggesting that Russia “could even lure Ukrainians to cross Russian territory just to have a pretext to escalate this”.

She added: “I don’t think the West will go this far, because the idea was to give Ukraine this defensive capability to stop the Russians. Fighter jets go beyond this.”

The defence expert also said that the jets would take too long to train with before they could be used effectively.

“You need to train air crews, not just the pilots, you need to train engineers. It takes years. It’s not something you do on the fly in two months,” she said. “Because it takes so long, either you send those planes asap and deploy Nato people to basically do everything, including the pilots, or there is no point in sending them because by the time they get there, it won’t matter anymore.”

More on Russia-Ukraine war

Dr Miron suggested that there could be other long-term risks to providing the Ukrainian military with fighter jets. “Ukraine is a very unstable country right now, and half the government is getting dismissed because they’re corrupt,” she said. A number of deputy ministers and regional governors have been axed by Ukraine’s government as part of an anti-corryuption drive.

She added: “Having a powerful military well trained by the West and having modern weapons without any proper control, and without Ukraine being in the EU or Nato, is very dangerous.

“There is always a risk because [the military] could instigate a coup because they have much more power and the president will not be able to do anything. There are many unknowns and so you don’t you don’t want to give them all that power.”

It comes after the UK, Germany and US committed to sending cutting-edge tanks to Ukraine.

US officials announced last week that they would supply 31 M1 Abrams battle tanks to Ukraine, hours after an agreement from Germany to provide 14 Leopard 2 tanks. The UK has previously committed 14 Challenger 2 tanks.

Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, Andriy Melnyk, welcomed the tank donation but urged allies to create a “fighter jet coalition” with models from different countries.

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