Boris Johnson vows to send British troops to protect Ukraine if Russia dares to invade

Boris Johnson announced last night that British troops would join NATO forces in Europe to help defend Ukraine should Russia dare invade.

The defiant prime minister warned that any invasion would cause the worst bloodshed in Europe since the Second World War and that “many sons of Russian mothers will not come home”.

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Mr Johnson said the UK and its allies would respond quickly and “unanimously” to any invasion and with severe economic sanctions.

He added: “The British military leads the NATO combat group in Estonia and if Russia invades Ukraine we will contribute to any NATO deployment to protect our allies in Europe. .”

They are unlikely to become belligerents but the ministers refuse to rule anything out.

Members of the Nato alliance – which includes Denmark, Spain, Bulgaria and the Netherlands – are sending more fighter jets and warships to Eastern Europe to bolster defenses in the region.

The US has also placed 8,500 troops on alert for short-term deployment, which Russia says has caused “great concern”.

It comes as former MI6 head Sir Alex Younger warned that he could not see a scenario where Russian President Vladimir Putin “could back down in a way that would meet the expectations he had created”.

But former chief spy added that Mr Putin rejected the “only reasonable compromise” on proposed arms control measures and saw a free Ukraine as a “threat” to his dreams of rebuilding Russia. .

Putin continues to deny that he plans to invade Ukraine.

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But he had a strike force assembled in the area, consisting of 127,000 troops, war jets, battleships, missile batteries, artillery and drones.

His force has also conducted training exercises on land, at sea and in the air.

Meanwhile, the British Minister of Armed Forces James Heappey said “a significant number” of Russian offensive forces crossed the border in the guise of spies.

Missions include covert reconnaissance of key targets for destruction and intelligence gathering that populations will support and will fend off an invasion.

Airspace over Ukraine is expected to close for the next few days as tensions rise.

Last night, a Russian senator announced a cut on European gas in response to Mr Johnson’s threat of “severe and coordinated economic sanctions, heavier than anything we have ever seen”. have done before against Russia”.

Deputy spokesman Nikolay Zhuravlev said Moscow would also starve Europe’s oil and metal exports if it were banned from using the Swift international payment system, in a move backed by the US and UK but backed by Germany. protest.

And MPs warn that war could trigger hundreds of thousands of refugees to flee west into the EU.

Tory MP Karl McCartney yesterday told the Commons that an EU “distracted and full of infighting” and unable to react could be “part of Putin’s thinking”.

“If this massive influx of refugees occurs, it could be the end of the EU,” he warned.

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