Ukraine Russia war latest news: France open to sending fighter jets to hold back Russia

President Emmanuel Macron said France was open to sending fighter jets to Ukraine, but laid out multiple conditions before such a significant step might be taken.

France has sent Ukraine air defence systems, rocket launcher units, cannons and other military equipment and has pledged to send armoured surveillance and combat vehicles, but has stopped short of sending battle tanks or heavier weaponry.

Asked at a news conference in The Hague on Monday if France is considering sending warplanes, Mr Macron said “nothing is excluded” as long as certain conditions are met.

Among those conditions: that providing such equipment would not lead to an escalation of tensions or be used “to touch Russian soil”, and that it would not “weaken the capacities of the French army”, Mr Macron said.

He also said Ukraine would have to formally request the planes.

Allies have held back from pledging war planes over fears of a Russian response but after several states took the previously unthinkable step of sending tanks, the terms of support for Ukraine have changed.

Mr Biden was addressing reporters upon his return to the White House when he was asked if the US would offer the single-engine multirole fighters to Kyiv.

The president’s statement comes amid a renewed push by Pentagon officials to provide the jets, which are manufactured by Lockheed Martin and used by a variety of US allies, in the wake of his decision to allow Kyiv to acquire American-made M1 Abrams tanks.

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Slovenian authorities have apprehended two alleged Russian spies suspected of using an agency dealing in real estate and antiques as a front for their activities in the Nato member, media reported Monday.

Slovenia’s respected Delo newspaper and the Siol news portal cited the public prosecutor’s office as confirming the arrests.

Slovenian police confirmed that two individuals had been arrested in December for suspected espionage but did not disclose which country they were accused of working for.

“They are suspected of being members of a foreign intelligence service,” police spokesman Drago Menegalija said.

The Kremlin has suggested Boris Johnson told “a lie” when the former prime minister said that Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to threaten him with a missile strike.

The former Downing Street incumbent made the claim in a new three-part series for BBC Two looking at how the West grappled with Mr Putin in the years leading up to the war in Ukraine.

Mr Johnson, talking about a phone call between the two leaders ahead of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, said: “He sort of threatened me at one point and said: ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile, it would only take a minute,’ or something like that.”

But the Kremlin disputed the claim, saying there were “no threats with missiles” during the bilateral conversation held in February 2022.

Fighting has remained largely deadlocked in eastern Ukraine, where Russian shelling killed five civilians over the past day, according to Ukrainian officials.

The casualties included a woman who was killed and three others who were wounded by the Russian shelling of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the country’s north-east, regional governor Oleh Syniyehubov said.

The Ukraine war should provide a “massive wakeup call” for how the government looks to fund the British Army, former soldiers and military historians have warned amid criticism over its ability to defend the UK and its allies (William Mata writes).

Rishi Sunak has come under fire from veterans and members of his own party after a US general said the army could no longer defend the UK. The army is currently 76,000 strong but would shrink to 73,000 if downsizing plans go ahead. It is already half the size it was in 1990 and the smallest it has been since Napoleonic times.

Former soldier Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a British Army officer from 1988 to 2012, told The Independent: “We thought the artillery was in good shape but that was before the Ukraine conflict, a lot of money was spent. But having been playing Star Wars [with focus on cyber and space security] the Ukraine war has shown that to be successful on the battlefield you need to focus on that.”

London has insisted the UK remains a top-tier military power following claims a senior US general told defence secretary Ben Wallace the British Army is no longer regarded as a “top-level” fighting force.

Asked if Rishi Sunak still believes the UK is a top-level fighting force, his spokesman said: “Yes”, adding that the PM believes the British military personnel have “the equipment and capability to meet the threats they face”.

Defence sources told Sky News that cost-cutting measures have seen the status of the British Armed Forces decline in the eyes of world leaders. “You haven’t got a tier one, it’s barely tier two,” the US general reportedly told Mr Wallace.

France and Australia have unveiled plans to jointly manufacture ammunition for Ukraine as the two countries seek to shore up defence cooperation and move past a row over Canberra’s decision to ditch plans to buy French submarines.

The relationship hit historic lows in the autumn of 2021 with Paris accusing its allies of stabbing it in the back when Australia opted for nuclear-powered submarines built with US and British technology instead in what became known as the Aukus pact.

French defence minister Sebastien Lecornu said France and Australia had agreed to cooperate to make “several thousands” of 155-mm shells to help Ukraine, which he hoped could start being delivered in the first quarter of this year.

Mr Lecornu was speaking after meeting his Australian counterpart Richard Marles, the first joint high-level talks since the submarine row erupted.

Nato-member Croatia’s president has criticised Western nations for supplying Ukraine with heavy tanks and other weapons in its campaign against invading Russian forces, saying those arms deliveries will only prolong the war.

Zoran Milanovic told reporters in the Croatian capital that it’s “mad” to believe that Russia can be defeated in a conventional war.

“I am against sending any lethal arms there,” Mr Milanovic said. “It prolongs the war.”“What is the goal? Disintegration of Russia, change of the government? There is also talk of tearing Russia apart. This is mad,” he added.

Mr Milanovic won the presidential election in Croatia in 2019 as a left-leaning liberal candidate, a counterpoint to the conservative government currently in power in the European Union and Nato-member state.

The former Downing Street incumbent made the claim in a new three-part series for BBC Two looking at how the West grappled with Mr Putin in the years leading up to the war in Ukraine.

Mr Johnson, talking about a phone call between the two leaders ahead of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, said: “He sort of threatened me at one point and said: ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile, it would only take a minute’, or something like that.”

But the Kremlin disputed the claim, saying there were “no threats with missiles” during the bilateral conversation held in February 2022.