James Cleverly says arming Kyiv is the only path to peace trends now
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Arming Ukraine is ‘the only path to peace’, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said yesterday, as Kyiv stepped up calls for the West to send warplanes.
Writing in a Maltese newspaper ahead of a visit to the island, Mr Cleverly said: ‘Like all authoritarian rulers, Putin responds only to strength in his opponents. Giving Ukrainians the tools they need to finish the job is the swiftest – indeed the only – path to peace.’
It came as Ukraine’s defence minister expressed confidence that Western allies will agree to Kyiv’s request for fighter jets. Oleksii Reznikov said Ukraine had already had everything from its ‘wish list to Santa’, bar jets. ‘There will be planes, too,’ Mr Reznikov predicted.
So far, Ukraine has won support from Baltic nations and Poland in its quest to obtain Western jets. But several Western leaders fear that providing them could draw their countries deeper into the conflict.
Since the war began, some heads of state initially balked at some of Kyiv’s requests,
