WE STAND UNITED
Zelensky pushes for jet coalition and Rishi Sunak sends message to Putin as UK pledges new attack drones at crunch talks
PRESIDENT Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Rishi Sunak at Chequers this morning in a surprise visit ahead of a possible spring counteroffensive in Ukraine.
The hero president embraced Mr Sunak as he arrived at the grand 16th-century estate by Chinook helicopter for crunch talks.
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Mr Sunak confirmed Britain will send Ukraine hundreds of long-range air defence missiles and drones - capable of reaching 200km - to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy hailed Britain as one of Ukraine's closest allies.
As he met Mr Sunak, Zelenskyy said: "Your support is already a lot for us, you did a lot - you, your government and His Majesty the King and of course your people, your society.
"We are thankful from all our hearts, from Ukrainians, from our soldiers, we are thankful."
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At a press conference after the talks, Zelenskyy called for the creation of a "jet coalition", which is "very important" to Ukraine "because we can't control the sky".
The President hinted that "very important decisions" about the provision of jets to his army will be made soon - but "we have to work a little bit more on it".
"We want to create this jets coalition and I'm very positive with it," he said.
Responding to the plea for wings, Mr Sunak said the UK will be a key part of a coalition of countries backing Ukraine.
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But he added that developing combat aircraft capabilities is "not a straight forward thing".
Ukrainian pilots will begin arriving in the UK in summer for elementary training sessions.
Mr Sunak said: "We will be training Ukrainian citizens to be absolutely combat-ready aircraft pilots and particularly whether it comes to Nato tactics as well, because that's an important part of the long-term relationship between our countries.
"So we've had very good productive discussions on that today. Other countries are involved, I'm talking to those leaders.
"I'll be doing more of that this week in my international engagement and we're very keen to build that coalition of countries to give Volodymyr and his people the aircraft support that they need."
Zelenskyy's visit to the UK is one of several on a whistle stop European tour.
Over the weekend the President met leaders in France, Italy and Germany where he sought further military and economic support for his people.
Responding to the visit, a spokesperson for the Kremlin claimed new British military aid won't make a difference to the outcome of the war.
But Mr Sunak hit back, warning Mad Vlad Putin: "We're not going away".
"As we said right at the beginning, the UK will remain steadfast in supporting Ukraine and its people," the PM said.
"We're here for the long-term."
At Chequers the PM reaffirmed the UK's commitment to "total" support for Ukraine.
This includes the provision of military equipment, training for soldiers, economic support, tough sanctions against Putin’s cronies and long-term security assurances to guarantee Ukraine’s sovereignty in the future.
In the last year Britain trained 15,000 Ukrainian, and in February the PM announced a new training programme for pilots to support their bid to build a new air force with F16 jets.
The first cohort of Ukrainian pilots will touch down in the UK this summer to learn vital skills.
In 2022 Britain provided Zelenskyy £2.3bn worth of military support, with the PM vowing to sustain that level this year.
Equipment sent over this year includes a squadron of Challenger 2 main battle tanks, self-propelled guns, hundreds of armoured vehicles and long-range missiles including Starstreak and Storm Shadow.
Zelenskyy's visit this week comes ahead of the Council of Europe summit in Iceland and the G7 Summit in Japan.
Mr Sunak will attend both, with his flight to Iceland taking off tomorrow morning.
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Downing Street said the conferences will be a huge opportunity for Britain to rally support for Ukraine.
The PM will call for sustained global support for the Eastern European state, and will plead with world leaders to not give up on Zelenskyy until Putin is finally crushed.
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