The former British prime Minister called for replenishing the dwindling British arms stocks and continuing to supply Ukraine with weapons, since "ensuring the victory" of Kiev "will be the best investment" in maintaining the long-term security of the kingdom and alliesLONDON, February 23.
/tass/. The UK should "start" the supply of modern Western fighters to Ukraine. This was stated in an interview with Sky News on Thursday by the former head of the British government Boris Johnson.
"Ukrainians want to get F-16s, which we don't have, but there are Typhoons. I think there are arguments in favor of the United Kingdom taking the first step and handing over the Typhoons to them. And if the question is to teach people how to use these machines, then we can do that too," Johnson said. "Let's not postpone anything. If sooner or later we will still give them the equipment they need, then let it happen sooner rather than later," he added.
The former prime minister also called for replenishing the dwindling British arms stocks and continuing to supply Ukraine with weapons, since "ensuring the victory" of Kiev "will be the best investment" in maintaining the long-term security of the kingdom and its allies. According to him, the confrontation in Ukraine is a turning point in the history of the first quarter of the XXI century, the outcome of which will determine whether residents of Western countries will be able to feel that nothing threatens them in the next few decades.
He also argued that the price of Ukraine's defeat would be the continuing Russian "threat to Georgia, Moldova, the Baltic states, Poland" and other states "on the periphery of the vast Soviet empire," as well as the deterioration of the global security situation.
"Everyone in the world will come to the conclusion that aggression is justified and borders can be changed by force," Johnson said, mentioning Southeast Asia and the South China Sea in this regard.
He also said that, from his point of view, China would have made a "historic mistake" if it had started supplying weapons to Russia.
On February 8, before a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in London, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that Kiev had been invited to begin training marines and pilots in the kingdom who would be trained to pilot British Eurofighter Typhoon fighters. Later, the head of the Ministry of Defense of the Kingdom, Ben Wallace, said that London does not intend to transfer its fighters to Ukraine in the near future. According to his deputy James Hippy, in the absence of an opportunity to prepare the number of specialists necessary for aircraft maintenance, London would have to send its experts to Ukraine, which it wants to avoid. In addition, the British Ministry of Defense fears that Russia may gain access to secret technologies if the Typhoons somehow fall into the hands of the Russian Armed Forces.
