Attack on Ukraine could happen ‘with no notice’, warns British armed forces minister
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Warnings of an imminent invasion are ramping up, with British armed forces minister James Heappey saying an attack “could effectively happen with no notice”.
Speaking to Sky’s Kay Burley, he said the UK had told citizens to leave Ukraine on Friday because Russia is now in a position where it could launch an attack very quickly.
Asked how seriously the UK was taking reports an invasion could happen as early as Wednesday, Mr Heappey said: “Very.”
He added the UK is hoping Russia is amassing forces for the purpose of “diplomatic leverage” but there is now a “very credible force” on the Ukrainian border,.
“My nervousness is if this was just a play by Vladimir Putin, he had that [diplomatic leverage] when he had 50,000 troops on the border of Ukraine but he’s kept on building that up,” the armed forces minister said.
He warned his “fear” is that an invasion is “now very imminent”.
However, he said it will not definitely happen and there are diplomatic tools that could be used such as the Minsk agreement and other mechanisms from the Cold War.
But Mr Heappey said there is a “very, very worrying, very credible force now amassed around Ukraine”.
Britain would support whatever Ukraine decides to do on its ambition to join NATO, Heappey added on Monday.
“If Ukraine decides that it is going to offer that it won’t become a NATO member, we support that – that’s for the Ukrainians to decide,” he told Sky when asked about comments by the Ukrainian ambassador to Britain who suggested such a deal may be possible.
“Similarly, if Ukraine wanted to reserve its position and say that in the future it may want to join NATO, we would support that too because that’s what sovereignty is and that’s what we support.”
A spokesman for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the NATO and EU membership aspirations were enshrined in its constitution and remained an absolute priority.
Photo – Russian tanks of the T-90 series and selfpropelled howitzer ‘Msta’ (C) on the airfield of the Zhukovsky flight research institute, outside Moscow, Russia. EPA/SERGEI CHIRIKOV
