Two years ago this month, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, surveyed the members of Britain’s joint Houses of Parliament from the steps of Westminster Hall, where they had assembled to hear him speak poetically about his determination to defeat the Russian invaders.
Things seemed more optimistic for Ukraine then. As the morning sun streamed through the hall’s stained glass behind, giving him a literal halo effect, Zelenskiy implored the British to “give us wings” – fighter jets to help deliver “victory over the very idea of war ... we know Russia will lose”.
Two years on, the devastating, grinding reality of the war has set in, as Russia’s advance inches relentlessly on. The new mood seems to be reflected in the dank weather at an eastern England Royal Air Force base where the latest batch of Ukrainian pilots are being trained by their British allies.
Now, there is no streaming sunlight, no halos, no poetry. The skies are grey and the clouds low, the wind cold and the countryside soaked. There will be no flying done today.
“Sitting in my chair, waiting to fly – this is the worst part,” says one young Ukrainian recruit.
The RAF is training Ukrainian pilots in Operation Interstorm, as part of a coalition of Nato states assembled to teach them to fly Nato fighter jets, such as US-made F16s that have been promised – and a few delivered – to Ukraine by its allies.
The UK gives more than £3 billion (€3.6 billion) in military aid to Ukraine each year. The issue is one of the few to unite the political divides across Westminster – and the entire country. Backing Ukraine to the finish, even if Donald Trump’s US lets it down, has become a British article of faith.
[ Trump’s opening gambit to end war shakes Ukraine and stirs RussiaOpens in new window ]
The British take in the Ukrainians first, ten at a time, to teach them the English necessary to operate at Nato standards as well as elementary flying skills and navigation techniques. The first few were already hardened aviators. The current batch have some flying experience, but not much – they are graduates of a degree course related to aviation. Future batches are expected to be near greenhorns.
After six months in England training on slow, low-altitude Grob Tutor propeller aircraft – they do 60 one-hour sorties – they go to France to train in faster jets. Canada is expected to take over the French module from April. Finally, they are trained in F16s. The whole process would ordinarily take close to three years. Given the urgent reality of war, the process for Ukrainians is truncated to 18 months.
About 24 Ukrainians have completed the British training so far, with another batch of ten well advanced. There is no point training in greater numbers – there are not yet enough fighter jets for them to fly at the far end. The modest numbers contrast with spurious reports in Ukrainian media in January that 200 fighter pilots were already trained. The reality is that capacity is set at about 20 per year.
The RAF must train Ukrainians from existing resources. This is neatly illustrated this week with a fridge of pilots’ flying rations in a common room at the east of England base. It has a note attached warning of greater demand due to Operation Interstorm. Don’t take food if you don’t need it, it says.
On the walls above, there are pictures of amalgams of the Ukraine and British flags, and the Slava Ukraini slogan that has become the invaded nation’s war cry.
British ministry of defence (MOD) officials have asked that the exact location of the RAF base be withheld, although Operation Interstorm locations could easily be worked out from job ads that the MOD publishes on its own website.
Today, the three young Ukrainian recruits who have assembled to speak have also asked that their real names or ranks not be disclosed – they want to be called only Ivan, Fedir and Yakiv. For their and their families’ safety, the MOD has also asked that their identifiable physical features are not described. The recruits are also unwilling to give their ages.
Yet the three Ukrainians sitting on a couch in the RAF common room seem like any other young men who might be fresh out of college, with their fashionable hairstyles and jovial humour. They seem nervous about being interviewed in English as a Ukrainian senior liaison officer, their RAF trainers, and MOD officials look on. Yet they don’t flinch when asked if they are ready for war.
“We are ready,” says Ivan. “We’re in the military now. It’s not a problem because our guys now are fighting, defending our country.”
These are very bad guys. We get information from the frontline – how they deal with our soldiers. You know that you need to protect your country, your home, your land. It is your nation, your culture
— Ivan
Fedir and Yakiv come from a city that has seen fierce fighting. Fedir has seen Russian attacks up close. He comes from a military family. He cites his younger family members as a motivation for what he is doing. His mother is happy he is training in Britain, however, where it is safer than home. Yakiv does not come from a military family but says he has wanted to be a pilot since childhood.
Ivan also has no military background – his family were initially against him joining. He is more cautious than the other two, more serious, his English a little more fluent. He stares down with a poker face as he calmly describes his feelings towards the Russian invaders.
“I don’t know how to explain it. These are very bad guys. We get information from the frontline – how they deal with our soldiers. You know that you need to protect your country, your home, your land. It is your nation, your culture.”
Later, he says he intends to become a “very good pilot” so that in the future, he can “launch missiles into the Russian troops”. After his time as a pilot, he suggests, he might like to become an astronaut.
Yakiv acknowledges that the world is “tiring” of the war. He says he knows that the cost could lead to higher taxes on citizens of the UK, Europe and the US. But he hopes support will be maintained.
How does his family feel about him preparing to become a fighter pilot? Are they worried? “They get used to it,” he says. He also talks about the difference between the Soviet-era planes from his homeland – he has a little experience of training in jets in Ukraine – and what he knows of the F16s.
“You control the F16 with just a little stick – like playing a game,” he says. On a MiG 29, he says, you “feel the aircraft better”. He has also found it difficult to go from calculating altitude and speed in meters per second, as he would in Ukraine, to Britain’s feet per second.
“I don’t know what this means,” he says, laughing.
Fedir says many Ukrainian trainee pilots might prefer to fly French Mirage 2000 jets or Soviet-style Sukhoi Su-27s, ahead of the F16s with their automated piloting systems. But he understands that the US jets have superior weapons and radar.
Ivan, meanwhile, acknowledges that the war might be over by the time they finish training.
“I am optimistic for the future of my country. I will serve in the military, ready to defend our borders. I really want everything to be okay. The war will end. I cannot predict when.”
In the meantime, he lives in the moment.
“When you are in the air, operating the plane, you know what you are doing – navigating, using the radio. You realise: ‘You’re a pilot.’ You are in another country, speaking another language, and doing this well. Not perfectly – we are not robots. But this will give us the opportunity to fight back.”
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