Zelensky Visits U.K, Appeals for Jets, Sunak Promises Challenger Tanks in March

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the United Kingdom today, where the Eastern European leader urged Britain and other Western nations to send military aircraft to reinforce Ukraine's air force as the Russo-Ukrainian War creeps close to being a year in length on the anniversary of the start of the invasion on February 24th. Ukraine's air force especially suffered losses during the earlier stages of the war, but as Russian air focus has increased on establishing stronger defenses and air superiority, the Ukrainian supply of mostly older Soviet fighter jets and combat aircraft in general is in shorter supply.
The U.K. has already trained 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers in the past six months and has pledged to keep that number consistent with 20,000 to be trained in the coming year. During Zelensky's visit, it was made clear that Britain would soon begin training Ukrainian pilots as well, and that in terms of assistance, "nothing was off the table" pertaining to aircraft delivery, with Sunak signaling towards wanting to send them. Sunak also announced an accelerated timeline for the arrival of Challenger 2 tanks in Ukraine, now set for March. Last week, Ukrainian troops arrived in the U.K. to train on tanks.