Britain gives Ukraine attack drones in latest show of support as Zelenskyy visits
Zelenskyy continues his tour of European allies after meetings with Germany, Italy, France
Great Britain promised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy long-range attack drones when he visited the country on Monday as part of a European tour aimed at securing new weapons for a counteroffensive against Russia.
Zelenskyy 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 U.K. 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," Zelenskyy, who arrived from visits to Rome, Berlin and Paris, told reporters after the meeting.
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 kilometres, to be delivered "over the coming months."
Sunak's spokesperson 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 [Royal Air Force} don't use those," he said.
Bakhmut gains not considered a counteroffensive
Zelenskyy won additional pledges of tanks, armoured vehicles and other weapons in recent days from Germany and France.
The Kremlin on Monday said Russia takes an "extremely negative" view of Britain's decision to supply Ukraine with more military hardware, but does not believe London's help will change the course of the conflict.
After keeping its troops on the defensive for six months, Ukraine is planning to start major assaults to reclaim territory using newly acquired weapons from the West. It has already achieved its biggest gains since last November in fighting around the city of Bakhmut in the past week, its first significant offensive operations since its troops recaptured the southern city of Kherson in November.
"The advance of our troops along the Bakhmut direction is the first success of offensive actions in the defence of Bakhmut," Col.-Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of ground forces, said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
"The last few days have shown that we can move forward and destroy the enemy even in such extremely difficult conditions," he said. "We are fighting with fewer resources than the enemy. At the same time, we are able to ruin its plans."
The battle for the small eastern city has become the longest and bloodiest of the war and has totemic significance for Russia, which has no other prizes to show for a winter campaign that cost thousands of lives.
Moscow has acknowledged retreating north of the city, and the head of the Wagner private army fighting inside Bakhmut has said Russia's regular forces have fled positions on the northern and southern flanks.
Ukrainian officials portray the fighting in that area as localized advances, rather than the major counteroffensive push that they say has yet to get under way.
Asked whether a counteroffensive could begin without the provision of more advanced weapons, Zelenskyy said: "We really need some more time, not too much. We will be ready in some time … I can't share with you."
Kremlin says it already felled a British missile
Last week, London announced it was sending Ukraine its air-launched Storm Shadow cruise missiles, with a far longer range than Western weapons sent previously, breaking a taboo against arms that can strike deep behind Russian lines.
Russia's Defence Ministry said Monday in its daily briefing that it had downed a long-range Storm Shadow missile, as well as shorter-range U.S.-built HIMARS-launched and HARM missiles. Reuters was unable to verify the reports.
After the United States, Britain has been one of the largest suppliers of military aid to Ukraine, contributing 2.3 billion pounds ($3.9 billion Cdn) worth of support last year and pledging a similar amount for 2023.
Meanwhile, the European Union's chief executive said on Monday that Kyiv's own peace plan should serve as the starting point for any efforts to end Russia's war in Ukraine, in comments timed to coincide with the start of China's "political settlement" tour of Europe.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke as a top Chinese envoy began a tour of Europe that Beijing says is aimed at discussing a "political settlement" to the war in Ukraine, now in its 15th month.
"Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine," said von der Leyen, who visited Kyiv last week. "We should never forget that Ukraine is the country that was brutally invaded. It's therefore the one that should set out the core principles for just peace."
While she said it was "very good" that Chinese President Xi Jinping had held a phone call with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy, she stressed Beijing should use its influence on Moscow to end the war.