UK willing to supply jets to allies so they can send aircraft to Ukraine

The Defence Secretary has said Britain is prepared to supply fighter jets to Eastern European allies to enable them to release their Soviet-era planes to Ukraine.

Ben Wallace said backfilling allies with the UK's jets to free up their own would be a quicker way to strengthen Kyiv's defences than providing them with British Typhoons

Mr Wallace made the comments on the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine as the UK announced a new package of sanctions, imposing an export ban on every piece of equipment Russia has used against Ukraine.

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He told Times Radio: "The other quick way that Ukraine can benefit from fighter jets is for those countries in Europe that have Russian Soviet fighter jets – MiG 29s or Su-24s – if they wish to donate, we can use our fighter jets to backfill and provide security for them as a result.

"They are already configured to fight in a Nato way, where of course Ukraine isn’t."

Britain will be training Ukrainian pilots on Nato-standard jets, but allies have been reluctant to release the modern warplanes requested by the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

Mr Wallace also said the UK is taking steps to rebuild its munitions stockpiles that have been depleted by the war and have "borne the brunt of defence cuts" in recent decades.

He told Sky News: "We have now started to place orders to replenish them and where we haven't placed orders, we have started the work to make sure we have the supply chain or find alternative sources."

The UK remains a prominent supporter of Kyiv, with the Government announcing earlier this year that Britain would be the first country to supply tanks to its armed forces.

Even with this support, there are fears that the war could continue for at least another year.

In Ukraine, soldiers are braced for a Russian spring offensive.

Russia's original plan of taking the country in only a matter of days failed, with a vast amount of the current fighting taking place around the east of Ukraine.