Western Nations Must Give Fighter Jets to Ukraine, Former PMs Boris Johnson and Liz Truss Say

This photo taken on September 22, 2016 shows a Britain's Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typho
PETROS KARADJIAS/AFP via Getty Images
Peter Caddle

Western powers must hand over their fighter jets to Ukraine in order to help them beat Russia, former UK Prime Ministers Liz Truss and Boris Johnson have said.

Former British Prime Ministers Liz Truss and Boris Johnson are continuing to push for the West to give more military support to Ukraine, with both officials demanding that the UK and its allies hand fighter jets to Ukraine in order to help it beat Russia.

Their recent statements stand in stark contrast to the positions of those currently in government, with UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace saying late last week that Western powers will only hand over jets to the country after the war with Russia is over.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Truss said that Britain needed to do everything in its power to help Ukraine, including handing over advanced weaponry to the invaded nation.

“We need to do all we can to make sure that Ukraine wins this war as soon as possible,” she told parliament, adding that “every extra day are lives lost”.

“We need to do all we can, as fast as we can,” she continued. “My view is that does include fighter jets.”

Such weaponry, the former Prime Minister argued, would constitute “an option” for victory for Ukraine, without which they would not be able to win the war, before adding that the UK must continue to support the country financially, so that it has the “economic wherewithal” to stay in the fight.

Truss’ public backing of fighter jets for the country echo statements made by her predecessor, Boris Johnson, who has maintained a hawkish stance on the conflict since Russia renewed its invasion in 2022.

Having already pushed for fighter jets to be sent to Ukraine in the past, Johsnon has now upped his rhetoric on the issue, saying that the UK should also designate Russia a state-sponsor of terrorism, putting it in the same realms as Iran and North Korea.

More significantly, Johnson also called for the UK to support Ukrainian efforts to invade the ethnic Russian-majority Crimean peninsula, which has been de facto under the control of the Russian Federation since 2014.

“It remains all too possible that Putin can achieve something he can call a victory,” Johnson remarked. “All he needs to do is to hang on to some piece of land he has conquered and the signal will go around the world that aggression can pay and borders can be changed.”

“Unless he’s purged from Ukrainian territory he will twist his knife in the wound,” he went on to add.

The statements of the two former UK leaders stand in stark contrast to those made by officials still sitting within the British cabinet, with UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace telling the German media that Western powers are only considering giving fighter jets to Ukraine once the war is already over.

“It’s going to be a long time before anyone delivers fighter jets to Ukraine, let’s face it,” he said in a recent interview with Der Spiegel.

“Especially modern planes like the Eurofighter, which we call Typhoon in Great Britain, will only be delivered to Ukraine after the war,” he continued. “That is consensus among the western partners.”

It’s not just the former Prime Ministers that do not appear to have gotten the same memo as Wallace though, with Poland also recently promising to hand over warplanes so long as the United States leads a number of other countries in doing the same.

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