British troops will not be sent to fight "directly" with the Russians, the UK's Defence Secretary has said.
The stance was confirmed by Ben Wallace on BBC Breakfast following a night of attacks in Ukraine, with confirmed reports of multiple Russian missile strikes on Kyiv at four o'clock this morning.
He told the show: "I said very clearly about a month ago that we are not going to be sending British troops to fight directly with Russian troops.
"We are going to hold the line in Nato. We've always supported Ukraine's application to Nato over the last 15 years, not every country has wanted them to join."
He added that the UK has done "the next best thing" which he explained was training over 20,000 Ukraniants and providing them with "lethal capabilities".
The Defence Secretary explained that sending in British troops to directly fight Russians would trigger a European war,
He said, "I'm not putting British troops directly to fight Russian troops. That would trigger a European war, because we are a Nato country, and Russia would therefore be attacking Nato."
He also told Sky News that he thought the invasion was failing to achieve its aims.
"Our assessment as of this morning is that Russia has not taken any of its major objectives, in fact it is behind its hopeful timetable.
“They’ve lost over 450 personnel and… one of the significant airports they were trying to capture with their elite Spetsnaz has failed to be taken, and in fact, the Ukrainians have taken it back.”
Leaders of the 30 Nato allied nations will meet on Friday, February 25, US President Joe Biden confirmed, as they come under pressure to go even further than sanctions already announced to hit the Kremlin after what Boris Johnson described as a "dark day in the history of our continent".
The chief of the Nato alliance said the "brutal act of war" shattered peace in Europe, joining a chorus of world leaders who decried the attack, which could cause massive casualties, topple Ukraine's democratically elected government and upend the post-Cold War security order.
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