Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has compared the brutal conflict in Ukraine with the misery of the First World War.
Speaking after talks with his Australian counterpart in Portsmouth, the Cabinet Minister likened the fighting with Russia to the 1914-18 Great War.
Amid mounting pressure on the West to supply Kyiv with fighter jets, Mr Wallace warned that even if the UK agreed to send British warplanes “tomorrow” it would take “months” to train Ukrainian pilots to fly them.
He admitted: “There is no magic wand.”
Defending the West’s decision not to send fighter jets yet, former Scots Guards officer Mr Wallace said the Ukrainians need “the ability to form military formations on the ground” to “push back Russian forces”.
“That is how you defeat the human wave attacks the Russians are currently having to resort to - and they are resorting to First World War level type of attacks, with subsequent casualties to match,” he said.
“Young men and women of Ukraine are trying to get up, march forward and take territory back from Russians.
“That is what they are doing every day - as we stand here right now - and are taking losses as a result.”
Downing Street and the White House have so far ruled out sending fighter planes to Kyiv, despite President Volodymyr Zelensky’s growing calls for aircraft.
However, Mr Wallace has signalled the UK could eventually agree.
“I’m very open to examining all sorts of systems, not just jets - but these things don't always happen overnight,” he said.
“But I can say we’re not putting Ukrainians at risk.
“Even if tomorrow morning we announced we were going to put them in fast jets, that would take months - you're suddenly having to learn to pilot a fast jet, so there is no magic wand in this horrendous conflict.”
The warning was a slap down to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson who earlier this week insisted RAF jets such as the Typhoon would not be too complicated for Ukrainian airmen.
He told the Washington-based Atlantic Council think tank: “I take that argument with a bit of a pinch of salt.”
Pointing to the success of Polish pilots flying RAF planes in the Battle of Britain in 1940, Mr Johnson added: “It didn’t take long for those Polish pilots to work out how to use a Hawker Hurricane or a Spitfire and I don’t think it would take the Ukrainians long to work out how to use F-16s or Typhoons or whatever we have to give them.”
But slapping down his former boss, Mr Wallace said today: “It’s easy to get carried away.”
Mr Wallace also revealed Ukrainian troops began training on British Challenger 2 tanks on Monday.
The UK is sending 14 of the fearsome vehicles to Kyiv to bolster Ukrainian efforts to repel Russian invaders.
Mr Wallace was speaking alongside Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and the country’s Deputy PM and Defence Secretary Richard Marles at Portsmouth’s iconic Spinnaker Tower.
Their wide-ranging discussions - part of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing security alliance - also focused on the Aukus defence pact, which includes the US and is aimed at providing Canberra with nuclear-powered submarines.
