UK troops won’t ‘fight side by side’ with Ukrainians – London

Britain has ruled out a “full-blown military deployment,” the PM’s spokesman said

London has no plans of sending its troops to fight Russia alongside Ukrainian soldiers, a UK government spokesman told Russia’s TASS news agency on Wednesday.

The comment came after French President Emmanuel Macron said that he could not rule out an eventual presence of NATO troops on Ukrainian soil, as Kiev’s conflict with Moscow continues.

The French leader initially floated the idea in late February and later doubled down by describing Russia as an “adversary.” He denied that Paris was “waging a war” against Moscow, however.

In the wake of Macron’s statements, the newspaper Le Monde reported that France had been contemplating the idea of troop deployment since at least June 2023.

The head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, said on Tuesday that Paris was preparing to send as many as 2,000 soldiers to Ukraine.

London has no such plans, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office told TASS. British soldiers are not going to “fight side by side” with Ukrainians, the official added, adding that the government in London has ruled out “full-blown military deployment.”

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West poses no threat to Russia – UK defense chief  

The British government told reporters last month that it would not send additional troops “beyond the small number of personnel we do have in the country supporting the armed forces of Ukraine.”

Commenting on a potential NATO deployment to Ukraine earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that this would be “one step shy of a full-scale World War III.”

Multiple NATO members have also said they had no plans to send troops to Ukraine. The US-led bloc has maintained that it does not wish to become a party to the conflict, but will continue to support Kiev with arms and money for “as long as it takes.”

READ MORE: France considering Ukraine military deployment – Odessa MP

Russia has repeatedly argued that the delivery of Western weapons already makes NATO countries de facto participants in the conflict and risks further escalation. Putin said last month that Moscow had no intention of attacking NATO members, unless it was attacked first.