Zelenskyy Calls for Jets

Several European leaders signaled an openness to send fighter jets to Ukraine yesterday, as Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy made a surprise tour of London and Paris to make the request. The campaign for more weapons follows Russian claims Monday that it is adding tens of thousands of troops in eastern Ukraine ahead of a planned offensive in the next month.

Neither Ukraine nor Russia currently holds air superiority over the front lines, although Russia’s fleet outmatches Ukraine’s older aircraft in number and capacity. The air parity results from Ukraine’s effective use of surface-to-air missile systems as well as a low Russian missile success rate, according to analysts. Ukrainian jet fighters would need to be trained to use Western aircraft, a roughly six-month process on average.

While leaders in the UK and France expressed willingness to send jets, both Germany and the US ruled out the option for now. See more updates on the war here.