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UK not planning to give fighter jets to Ukraine — defense minister

However, the UK is willing to participate in setting up an international coalition to transfer fighter jets to Ukraine

LONDON, May 17. /TASS/. The UK isn’t planning now to send Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets to Ukraine, but is ready to help with the training of Ukrainian military pilots for the longer term, UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace said on Wednesday.

"Britain is not going to donate any fighter jets to Ukraine this time," he said at a joint news conference with his German counterpart Boris Pistorius, which was broadcast by Sky News. "Typhoon is not the plane that would be suitable."

London was prepared, he said, to help Ukraine with the training of military pilots in flying Western warplanes, a process that would take up a significant amount of time.

Wallace added that London is not ready to send its military personnel to Ukraine to service Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets, an effort that takes hundreds of people, while the conflict is ongoing. He said training programs for Ukrainian pilots would be part of defense cooperation between the West and Ukraine after the conflict ended.

However, the UK is willing to participate in setting up an international coalition to transfer fighter jets to Ukraine, the defense minister said.

Wallace noted that London will support any country that will wish to supply fighter jets to Ukraine, whether they are of Soviet-made ones or US-made F-16s, which Kiev has been requesting in recent months. He said that the West needed to demonstrate the absence of philosophical objections in the issue of transferring combat aircraft to Ukraine.

On Monday, the office of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that the country will start training Ukrainian military pilots in summer in an effort that was first announced in February. A new training center will be opened to train Ukrainian military personnel in operating Western aircraft.

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