Wallace did not rule out the possibility of sending jets but said fighter aircraft were not what Ukraine needed right now and that there were practical issues to consider, such as the many months it would take to train Ukrainian forces to use them.
He was speaking at a news conference of British and Australian foreign and defence ministers following a meeting on trade and security. “What the Ukrainians need is the ability to form military formations on the ground in order to use combined arms manoeuvre to push back Russian forces,” he said. Earlier on Thursday, Sunak’s spokesman said the quickest a pilot could learn to fly a British fighter jet was 35 months.