A defense expert warned that deliveries of fighter jets to Ukraine were “out of the question” and could lead to direct British intervention in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly called on Western allies to provide aircraft to strengthen the country’s air force in the war against Russia.
But both British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden ruled out sending planes today.
While Mr. Sunak vowed to speed up aid to make “decisive gains” against the Russian invaders, he said considers it inappropriate to supply Ukraine with British fighters.
Downing Street said training Zelenskiy’s forces in the “extremely advanced” Typhoons and F-35s would take too long and lead to a “protracted stalemate” in a war “only Russia stands to gain”.
He said they should seize the “opportunity to speed up British support” to give Ukraine “the best chance of success and to make the most of opportunities that Russian forces are lagging behind.”
Dr Marina Miron, a defense expert at King’s College London, said the practicalities of delivering the planes were not the only issue with Britain’s involvement. According to her, the donation of fighter jets will be seen by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a direct threat and, as a result, will sharply increase Britain’s involvement in the conflict.
“Apart from logistics and training, it would be politically impossible for NATO to send these military aircraft to Ukraine without intervening directly,” she said. I. “Tanks are a kind of border line. But fighters…
“You need to have great faith to give Ukraine fighter jets, because if they attack Russia, it will be hell. It will escalate immediately. So providing them with long-range fighters and missiles is probably out of the question.”
Dr. Miron said that handing over the planes to Ukraine “definitely” would be seen as a threat by Mr. Putin and suggested that Russia “might even lure Ukrainians into crossing Russian territory, just to have an excuse to escalate the situation in order to resolve it.”
She added: “I don’t think the West would go that far because the idea was to give Ukraine a defensive capability to deter the Russians. Fighters go beyond that.”
The defense expert also said that it would take too long to learn how to use the aircraft before they could be used effectively.
“You have to train flight crews, not just pilots, you have to train engineers. It takes years. You don’t do it in two months,” she said. “Because it takes so long, you ship these planes as fast as you can and basically let the NATO guys do everything, including the pilots, or it doesn’t make sense to send them because by the time they arrive, it doesn’t matter anymore.”
Dr. Miron hinted that the supply of fighter jets to the Ukrainian military may come with other long-term risks. “Ukraine is now a very unstable country, and half of the government is being fired for corruption,” she said. The Ukrainian government has fired a number of state secretaries and governors as part of an anti-corruption campaign.
She added: “To have a powerful army, well trained in the West and equipped with modern weapons, without proper control and without Ukraine’s membership in the EU or NATO is very dangerous.
“There is always a risk because [the military] stage a coup d’état because they have a lot more power and the president can’t do anything about it. There are many unknowns and therefore you don’t want to give them all this power.
This happened after the UK, Germany and the US pledged to send advanced tanks to Ukraine.
US officials announced last week that they would deliver 31 M1 Abrams main battle tanks to Ukraine, hours after Germany reached an agreement to supply 14 Leopard 2 tanks. The UK had previously laid down 14 Challenger 2 tanks.
Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk welcomed the donation of the tank, but urged allies to form a “coalition of jet fighters” with models from various countries.
Source: I News
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