UK troops sent to help train Ukrainian army to leave country
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British troops helping with training in Ukraine will leave the country this weekend, the armed forces minister said as he warned that Russia could now launch an attack “at no notice”.
James Heappey said the small number of UK personnel sent to train Ukrainian troops on the anti-tank missiles “will be withdrawn,” alongside around 100 helping with wider troop training on Operation Orbital.
Britain, in common with all other Nato allies, has said it would not fight against any Russian attack, a point repeated by the minister in a BBC interview. Ukraine is not a member of Nato, although in 2008 it was given a promise that it would one day be able to join.
“There will be no British troops in Ukraine if there is to be a conflict there,” Heappey said: “They will be leaving over the course of the weekend.”
The military evacuation follows a string of warnings, led by the US but supported by the UK, that Russia has assembled a force capable of invading Ukraine. Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, said on Friday night: “We are in the window when an invasion could begin at any time.”
Western intelligence fear the most likely scenario, in the event of a conflict, is that Russian forces would mount a lightning attack aimed at encircling Kyiv, a city of more than 3 million people, and trying to force a change of regime. As a first step, Moscow’s forces would aim to rapidly degrade Ukraine’s military in a lightning attack.
UK tells British nationals in Ukraine not to expect military evacuation
Meanwhile British nationals who choose to stay in Ukraine should not expect a military evacuation if conflict with Russia breaks out, junior defence minister James Heappey told Sky News on Saturday.
“British nationals should leave Ukraine immediately by any means possible and they should not expect, as they saw in the summer with Afghanistan, that there would be any possibility of a military evacuation,” he said.
On Friday the UK government advised British nationals to leave Ukraine while commercial means were still available and advised against all further travel to the country.
Britain is, however, maintaining a diplomatic presence in Ukraine.
“I am staying in Kyiv and continue to work there with a core team. The embassy remains operational,” the British ambassador to Ukraine, Melinda Simmons, said on Twitter.
British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said on Friday British troops sent to Ukraine for training purposes would return soon.
“There will be no British troops in Ukraine if there is any conflict with Russia,” said Heappey.
U.S. President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin were set to speak on Saturday as Western nations warned that a war in Ukraine could ignite at any moment
Photo – An Ukrainian serviceman checks the situation at the positions on a front line, not far from pro-Russian militants controlled city of Donetsk, Ukraine. EPA-EFE/STAS KOZLYUK
