UKRAINE needs F-16 fighter jets to secure victory over “vulnerable” Vladimir Putin, according to a former president of Ukraine.

Petro Poroshenko told GB News: “It is extremely important to understand that the situation with Prigozhin is not the end of Putin but definitely the Putin image in Russia is of a vulnerable leader, he’s completely destroyed.

“The whole world understands who Putin is, but now many people understand it in Russia.

“With that situation. I think that the armed forces of Ukraine will definitely use this opportunity to increase the efficiency and intensiveness of our counter-offensive and achieve certain results.

“When you are not in a position of strength when speaking with Putin, nothing happens. This paradoxically enough, in the Prigozhin case, demonstrates you must speak with Putin from a position of strength, this is the only language Putin understands.”

In a discussion with Mark Longhurst and Pip Tomson during The Live Desk on GB News, he continued: “When I was in London, I had an opportunity to speak with the Ukrainian soldiers who were in a training camp and we are very much waiting for the F-16s.

“This is the game-changer. This is a key factor for the Ukrainian counter-offensive. This is the key factor for our future victory.

“We need them as soon as possible. Together with air support, we need increased air defence capability, we need an electronic warfare system. And definitely we need long range missiles.”

He added: “I am absolutely confident of our joint efforts, with the assistance of our partners we have a very strong hope and we are optimistic for the future success of the Ukrainian offensive operation.”