No Plans To Send British Troops To Ukraine, UK PM Says

There are no immediate plans to deploy military instructors to Ukraine, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said on Sunday, rowing back from comments by his Defence Minister who had suggested troops could carry out training in the Country.

To date, Britain and its allies have avoided a formal military presence in Ukraine to reduce the risk of a direct conflict with Russia.

British Defence Minister Grant Shapps, said in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph newspaper that he wanted to deploy military instructors to Ukraine, in addition to training Ukrainian Armed Forces in Britain or other Western Countries.

Hours after that interview was published, Sunak said there were no immediate plans to send British troops to Ukraine.

“What the Defence Secretary was saying was that it might well be possible one day in the future for us to do some of that training in Ukraine,” Sunak said.

“But that’s something for the long term, not the here and now. There are no British soldiers that will be sent to fight in the current conflict.”

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Sunday said any British soldiers training Ukrainian troops in Ukraine would be legitimate targets for Russian Forces.

Britain has provided five-week military training courses to around 20,000 Ukrainians over the past year, and intends to train a similar number going forward.

REUTERS