LONDON: Britain promised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky long-range attack drones when he visited the country on Monday as part of European tour aimed at securing new weapons for a counteroffensive against Russia.

Zelensky met Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the British leader’s Chequers country residence, where the pair also discussed Ukraine’s request for Western fighter jets.

Britain said it would begin basic training of Ukrainian pilots this summer “hand in hand with UK efforts to work with other countries on providing F-16 jets”.

“We want to create this jets coalition and I’m very positive with it...I see that in the closest time you will hear some, I think, very important decisions, but we have to work a little bit more on it,” Zelensky, who arrived from visits to Rome, Berlin and Paris, told reporters after the meeting.

Russia takes ‘extremely negative’ view of Britain’s decision

Sunak said Britain would provide Ukraine with hundreds of air defence missiles and further unmanned aerial systems, including new long-range attack drones with a range of more than 200 km, to be delivered “over the coming months”.

Sunak’s spokesman also said Britain had no plans to send fighter jets to Ukraine.

“The Ukrainians made the decision to train their pilots on F-16s and you will know the RAF don’t use those,” he said.

The Kremlin on Monday said Russia takes an “extremely negative” view of Britain’s decision to supply Ukraine with more military hardware.

“The conflict is at a pivotal moment,” Sunak said. “The UK will remain steadfast in supporting Ukraine and its people to defend itself...it is important for the Kremlin to also know that we are not going away. We are here for the long term.”

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2023