Liz Truss calls for West to send fighter jets to Ukraine on her backbench return
Liz Truss delivered her first speech from the backbenches for more than a decade tonight as MPs debated the Ukraine war nearly a year after the invasion.
Friday marks the first anniversary of Russian troops sweeping over the border, sparking the biggest conflict on European soil since the Second World War.
Britain will hold a minute’s silence to remember the losses of the past 12 months.
Former Prime Minister Ms Truss had been a government frontbencher since 2012 until her resignation in October.
She returned to the backbenches following the disaster of her 49-day premiership - and tonight she spoke in a Commons debate to mark almost a year since the invasion.
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Ms Truss was Foreign Secretary when war erupted, and spoke of being woken by an official to tell her tanks were rolling over the Russia-Ukraine border.
Ms Truss held talks with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow when she was Foreign Secretary (Russian Foreign Ministry/TASS)“I got a phone call at 3.30 in the morning from my private secretary telling me that Vladimir Putin had begun a wholesale invasion into Ukraine - both airstrikes and a land invasion targeting cities across the country, including Kyiv,” she revealed.
“Putin went ahead despite the warnings, despite what he knew would happen, because fundamentally he didn’t believe the Ukrainians would fight, and he didn’t believe that the free world would have the resolve to stand up to him.
“He was proved wrong in both cases.”
Backing demands for Western fighter jets to be sent to Ukraine, she said: “We need to do all we can as fast as we can.
She called for the West to send aircraft to Kyiv“My view is that does include fighter jets.”
Her predecessor Boris Johnson sat just feet away - and renewed his calls for the West to send planes to Kyiv.
Ex-PM Mr Johnson, whose response to the invasion was widely credited, told MPs: “We said we would come to their aid in the event of an attack.
“Now is the time finally to do what we can to honour that promise.
"The Ukrainians are not just fighting for their freedom, but for the cause of freedom around the world.
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Boris Johnson visited Ukraine when he was Prime Minister, and met hero President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv (Ukraine Government / No10 Downing Street)“We should give them what they need - not next month, not next year, but now."
He added: “The story of the last 12 months is that sooner or later, having exhausted all other options, we give them what they need, from anti-tank missiles...to tanks and so, if that is the choice, sooner or later, then for heaven's sake let's give these weapons sooner."
The Government will begin training Ukrainian pilots on NATO warplanes, but has stopped short of saying whether the UK will supply aircraft.
Amid fears UK arms caches are being run down by the war, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly dismissed worries about raiding British weapons stocks, saying the UK was “lucky” Ukrainians were fighting the Russians instead of Britons.
"This equipment, this ammunition, was to fight in this theatre, against that enemy,” he told MPs.
“We are lucky that the young men and young women who are conducting that fight are Ukrainians rather than British.”
Urging European allies to keep sending kit to Kyiv, he added: “We have an enhanced duty to ensure that they are successful, and if anyone in the international community or amongst our allies was thinking of holding back their stocks for a rainy day - this is the rainy day."
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