08.02.2023
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit the UK on February 8 and will meet with Prime Minister Sunak as planned and deliver a speech in the House of Commons. London has announced that it will provide fighter pilot training for Ukrainian soldiers. Later, Zelensky is also likely to visit Brussels to meet with EU leaders.
(Deutsche Welle Chinese website) The British Prime Minister’s Office disclosed that the leaders of the two countries will discuss “two-pronged British aid to Ukraine” when they meet, including an immediate increase in arms aid to deal with the Russian military’s spring offensive, and strengthening long-term support.
The Prime Minister’s Office also said in a statement that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will propose to strengthen the training of Ukrainian military personnel in the UK, including extending the scope of training to fighter pilots, to ensure that Ukraine can effectively defend its airspace in the future,” This will allow Ukrainian pilots to fly advanced NATO standard fighter jets in the future.”
Not long ago, US President Biden and German Chancellor Scholz just stated that they would not provide Western fighter jets to Ukraine, but French President Macron said that they would not rule out this possibility.
Royal Air Force Typhoon
London also said Prime Minister Sunak would propose to the Ukrainian president “the immediate start of the Marine Corps training programme”.
In the past 6 months, the UK has helped train about 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers to “combat readiness”, and according to the existing plan, it will train another 20,000 this year.
In addition to meeting Prime Minister Sunak, Zelensky will also deliver a speech in the House of Commons of the British Parliament. On February 9, the Ukrainian president may also go to Brussels to meet with EU leaders and deliver a speech in the European Parliament. A spokesman for European Council President Charles Michel told the outside world that Michel had previously invited Zelenskiy “to attend an EU summit in person.” Two European Parliament sources told AFP separately that Zelenskiy is likely to attend a special session of parliament on February 9 and deliver a speech.
For security reasons, the EU and Ukrainian officials have not disclosed the specific itinerary of Zelensky’s visit so far.
A week ago, a number of EU leaders visited Ukraine. During the meeting, Zelensky once again called for speeding up the process of absorbing Ukraine into the EU.
This will also be the first visit by a Ukrainian president to the UK and the EU since the Russo-Ukrainian war started nearly a year ago.
(AFP, etc.)
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