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Zelensky makes a surprise visit to London's House of Commons hoping to secure 'powerful English planes'

In a surprise visit to London Wednesday, Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a standing-room of British lawmakers, including the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in the 900-year-old Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the parliamentary estate. Clad in his trademark olive green military sweatshirt, Zelensky, showed an intimate acquaintance with his audience, making numerous references to British culture and history.

The Ukrainian President handed a helmet to the speaker of the House of Commons. It belonged, he said, to a Ukrainian pilot and the inscription on it read: “We have freedom. Give us wings to protect it.”

Zelensky said he finally knew what it was to have once sat in Winston Churchill’s chair in the War Rooms, the heavily fortified underground bunker from which Britain commanded its armed forces in World War II. He reminded his hosts that he once thanked them for “delicious English tea” and that he’d now be departing their presence thanking them for “powerful English planes.”

This was an allusion to the British government's announcement that it will expand its training program to include marines and fighter pilots.

Ever since Western nations, including the UK, U.S. and Germany, agreed to send Ukraine battle tanks, Kyiv has been outspoken about its desire to next receive NATO warplanes. The biggest "ask" on its wishlist for enhanced security assistance are F-16s, the multirole fighter jet in service in the U.S. Air Force and in those of a host of other nations including Poland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Greece. When asked at the White House on Jan. 31 if the U.S. was planning to directly send F-16s to Ukraine, President Joseph Biden offered a terse response: "No." He was not asked, however, nor did he specify, if Washington would block third party nations from sending them. CNN reported the same day that the "U.S. has not indicated to allies that it would be opposed to other countries sending their stock of F-16s to Ukraine."

The UK does not stock or fly F-16s. The Royal Air Force uses a mixture of Eurofighter Typhoons and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. It also uses a fleet of BAE Hawk jet trainer aircraft to train fighter pilots; these will almost certainly be the aircraft used to train Ukraine’s new generation of combat pilots.

“There is an ongoing discussion among other countries about their own fighter jets, some of which are more akin to what Ukrainian pilots are used to,” a spokesperson for the prime minister said in a press conference. London expects to begin training the first Ukrainian pilots this spring in a program meant to ensure they “are able to fly sophisticated NATO-standard fighter jets in the future,” according to an accompanying press release.

Sunak tasked his Defence Secretary Ben Wallace with "investigating what jets we might be able to give [Ukraine]," while stressing that this was a long-term, rather than short-term, solution for Ukraine's military needs. In that long term, there's a possibility that older RAF Eurofighter Typhoon jets may end up in Ukraine; a number of the UK's older Eurofighters are due to be retired in 2025, almost entirely for budgetary rather than operational reasons.

Yet again, the UK is acting as a dam-breaker on weapons provisions to Ukraine. Previously, after Germany said it would only authorize the dispatch of battle tanks if another Western ally went first, the British government announced it would send 14 of its Challenger 2 tanks, a decision that arguably sped America’s unexpected but fateful agreement to send Abrams. At least some of the Challengers are now set to arrive next month.

The UK is attempting to “move the conversation forward” on fighter aircraft in a similar way it did with tanks, according to a senior European diplomat. “The Brits just get it,” a senior member of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence told Yahoo News.

Zelensky today explicitly referred to the early delivery of the powerful but simple to use NLAW anti-tank missiles, shipped to Ukraine in RAF heavy transport aircraft in their thousands, which gave Ukrainian soldiers a fighting chance against the first waves of Russian heavy armor.

By speaking at Westminster Hall, Zelensky joins the rarefied ranks of foreign leaders. The last head of state to be accorded the honor was former U.S. President Barack Obama in 2011. As he arrived Wednesday, the Ukrainian president was greeted by rapturous applause and cheers from the assembled crowds of MPs, Lords, and staffers. “It was something you’d expect for a rockstar,” said one parliamentary staffer who was present. “I don't think any other political figure on Earth would be able to get so many people to turn out in such a short space of time.”

“Zelensky's visit confirms the UK as the foremost guarantor of European security after the U.S.,” Alicia Kearns MP, the Conservative Chair of the influential Foreign Affairs Select Committee, told Yahoo News. “His genuine affection for our country was evident.”

And the feeling is mutual. Earlier today, in the House of Commons, British MPs were unanimous in their support for Ukraine during the Prime Minister’s Questions, a weekly grilling of the British leader by legislators, including members of his own party. It was an atypically concordant session, with little of the jeering and political point-scoring typically heard during the session. Sunak is not only prime minister; he is also the head of an embattled and increasingly unpopular Conservative Party. “Regardless of other differences, we’re pretty much all aligned on Ukraine,” Stewart McDonald MP, a representative from the Scottish National Party, told Yahoo News.

If anything, rivals compete to show who is more fulsome in their support of the Ukrainians. Keir Starmer, the leader of the British Labour Party, which currently enjoys a healthy 26-point lead in the polls over the Conservatives, used all of his allotted time to demonstrate his party’s total support for the British government’s policy of arming Ukraine.

Starmer has also called for the seizure of frozen Russian assets and for those to be used for Ukraine's reconstruction after the war, a significant policy proposal given London's long and notorious status as a center of Russian wealth and a hub for Russian money-laundering. Roman Abramovich, the now-former owner of the Chelsea Football Club, was among the UK-resident oligarchs sanctioned after Russia's invasion of Ukraine last Feb. So was Polina Kovaleva, the daughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's alleged mistress, who, at mere 26 years old, somehow managed to own, without a mortgage, a $5.3 million mansion in the tony district of Kensington, west London.

Zelensky arrived in London this morning on an RAF C-17 transport aircraft, in a visit that had been kept as a closely guarded secret until his aircraft arrived. He explicitly thanked former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, still as controversial a figure at home as he is a hero in Ukraine, for persuading other countries to support the country. “London has been with Kyiv since day one,” Zelensky said.

It was only the second overseas visit he has made since the start of the invasion. According to press reports, he is traveling onward to Paris where he will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron as well as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. From there, Zelensky will go to Brussels where he will meet with officials during a European Union leadership summit and likely address the European Parliament.