Defense Minister: UK unlikely to send troops if Russia invades Ukraine | Ukraine

[ad_1]

Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said it was highly unlikely that Britain or its allies would send troops to defend Ukraine if it was invaded by its neighbor Russia.

US intelligence claims that Russia has deployed about 70,000 troops near the border of Ukraine and began planning a possible invasion as soon as early next year.

Wallace and Ukraine’s Defense Minister, Oleksiy Yuryovich Reznikov, issued a joint statement on November 16 saying they were “concerned” about the Russian military buildup.

“The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with the people of Ukraine and will continue its long-standing determination to support them,” the statement added.

But in an interview with the Spectator, Wallace said Ukraine “is not a member of NATO, so it is unlikely that anyone would send troops to Ukraine to challenge Russia.”

“We should not deceive people as we do. The Ukrainians are aware of this,” he added, in comments reported by the “New York Times” before the interview was published.

Asked if this meant Ukraine was on its own, Wallace said: “We can all help build capacity but to some extent Ukraine is not in NATO and that is why we are doing everything we can to tell Putin not to do this.”

It comes days after Boris Johnson told Russian leader Vladimir Putin that there would be “serious consequences” for Russia if it invaded Ukraine.

The prime minister spoke by phone to Putin on Monday to reaffirm the UK’s commitment to Ukraine’s territorial integrity and to warn that any destabilizing action by Moscow would be a “strategic mistake”.

The Kremlin has denied preparing for an invasion and accused the government in Kiev of stoking tensions in the region by deploying new weapons.

The two countries have been at loggerheads since 2014, when Russian forces annexed Crimea and backed a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

[ad_2]