The UK prime minister has vowed “nothing is off the table” when it comes to the UK answering Vlodymyr Zelenskiy’s appeal for British fighter jets to Ukraine.
The Russian Embassy in London warned there would be a response and told the UK that sending fighter jets would lead to a “bloody harvest” affecting all of the world.
RIA Novosti – which CNN calls Russian state media – published a statement from the embassy which read: “I would like to remind officials in London : it is on its conscience that in such a scenario there will be a ‘bloody harvest’ of the next round of escalation, as well as the resulting military-political consequences for the European continent and the whole world.”
Sunak has asked defence secretary Ben Wallace which aircraft could potentially be transferred to the Ukrainian army after Zelenskiy called for “wings to defend freedom” during an address to the British parliament.
The prime minister’s spokesperson said Wallace is “actively” looking at whether the UK can send fighter jets to Ukraine but that no decision has yet been made.
Disgraced former PM Boris Johnson backed the Zelenskiy’s plea for aircraft saying “it is time to give Ukraine the extra equipment they need to defeat Putin and bring peace to Ukraine.”
Johnson called for the deployment of all 100 of the UK’s Typhoon fighter jets to “protect Ukraine” would be their “single best use”.
“The faster we do it the better,” he added.
After delivering an “historic address” to politicians in Westminster Hall – where Zelenskiy “lavished praise” on Britain’s world leadership, the Guardian reports – Ukraine’s president visited the King at Buckingham Palace.
Charles III told him, “we’ve all been worried about you” and received a personal update on the situation from the president over tea, reports the Telegraph.
Zelenskiy called the 30 minute audience with the monarch a “truly special moment” and told Charles it was “a great honour”.
“In Britain, the King is an air force pilot and in Ukraine today, every air force pilot is a king for us, for our families, because they are so few, they are so precious, that we the servants of our kings do everything possible and impossible to make the world provide us with modern planes to empower and protect pilots who will be protecting us,” Zelenskiy earlier told MPs and peers assembled at Westminster Hall for the Ukranian president’s speech.
