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‘Not practical:’ No10 rules out sending fighter jets to Ukraine for now

A F-35B fighter jet (AFP via Getty Images)
A F-35B fighter jet (AFP via Getty Images)

It would not be “practical” to send British fighter jets to Ukraine, Downing St said on Tuesday, just hours after Joe Biden ruled out such a deployment of USaircraft.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “The UK’s Typhoon and F-35 fighter jets are extremely sophisticated and take months to learn how to fly.

“Given that we believe that it’s not practical to send those jets into Ukraine.

“Obviously, we will continue to provide and accelerate our military support to Ukraine and listen carefully to their requests.”

The No10 comments came after a minister said earlier on Tuesday that the Government would look “favourably” on the plea from Volodymyr Zelensky for fighter jets.

Pressed on whether the Government was not opposed to other allies sending less advanced planes, the spokesman added: “We will continue to discuss with our allies about what we think is the right approach.

“We have just committed our Challenger tanks and moved in conjunction with our allies on that.

“Those tanks will be arriving fairly shortly.”