The UK sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine is “highly risky”, a former security adviser to Gordon Brown has warned, arguing the “grotesquely underfunded” armed forces do not have the resources to do so.
The prime minister confirmed the UK will discuss such a move with its allies on a visit to Kyiv this week, vowing Britain will “play our part” in guaranteeing the Ukraine’s security following any ceasefire with Russia.
But a number of senior military figures have expressed concerns at the plan. Among them is Lord West of Spithead, retired admiral of the Royal Navy and Mr Brown’s former advisor.
He warned maintaining troops in Ukraine is currently “beyond us” as a result of how “grotesquely underfunded and hollowed out” the armed forces are.
“There is a lot of scope for getting very enmeshed in action that you don’t want to get enmeshed in,” Lord West told The Independent. “And you can suddenly find yourself almost in a situation of saying, ‘yes, we’ll have to send in more troops’.
“Once you’re there on the ground, it’s almost as if you’re looking after another member of Nato. What we need to do is make sure that war doesn’t restart again with Putin trying to take over Ukraine.
“So within the package of how that’s done, I’m sure there are other ways of ensuring that other than us just having troops there.”
Lord West’s comments echo those of former head of the Army Richard Dannatt. He told The i Paper on Friday: “I don’t think the size of our Army is large enough to do that with everything else that it’s doing currently. I think we would struggle.
“We could do it, but then we would have to certainly put more resources into the Army, and set about growing the size of the Army. It’s a major issue that relates directly to the future size of the British Army. You start to run out of troops quite quickly.”
Colonel Tim Collins – a former army officer known for his eve of battle speech on Iraq in 2003 – said the UK risks becoming a “national embarrassment” as a result of the plans, arguing the army has been “hollowed out to the point of destruction”.
He said the silver lining of such a move would be exposing “failures and the holes in the system” and pressing the government to invest more in the UK’s armed forces.
He said: “I think we can’t do it, but it will be a good exercise to attempt to do it and then we can see the failures and the holes in the system.
“Maybe the government will wake up to the fact that they’ve hollowed out the military to the point of destruction.”
“We’ll increasingly have to fall back on allies and they’ll have to pick up the burden and it will be a national embarrassment. It will spark a national conversation.”
While ministers have pledged to boost UK defence spending from its current point – at just above 2 per cent – to 2.5 per cent, it is not yet clear when or how this target will be achieved.
On Thursday, the prime minister indicated he was speaking to international partners, including French president Emmanuel Macron and Mr Zelensky, about the prospect of western soldiers monitoring a future deal.
Sir Keir’s first visit to Kyiv since entering No 10 coincided with a drone attack by Russian president Vladimir Putin’s forces on the Ukrainian capital.
The prime minister heard sirens warning Kyiv’s citizens of the air raid as he met Mr Zelensky – a moment he said highlighted the “incredible resolve” of the Ukrainian people.
“Let’s be clear, we all want this war to end, no one wants that more than Ukrainians, but right now Putin shows no sign of wanting peace,” Sir Keir said.
Asked later on Thursday whether in principle he would agree to send troops to Ukraine to safeguard any peace deal, as Mr Macron has called for, Sir Keir told Sky News: “We will be discussing this with a number of allies, including of course President Macron, including President Zelensky here today, and we will play our full part.
“We have always been one of the leading countries in relation to the defence of Ukraine, and so if you can read into that we will be playing our full part, but I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. Because this has to be enduring, lasting.”
The Ministry of Defence has been contacted for comment.
