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DEFENCE chiefs were last night finalising plans to airlift up to 1,000 Britons from Ukraine as Russian invasion fears intensified.
The 16 Air Assault Brigade – sent in to evacuate UK nationals from Afghanistan last summer – is said to be on standby.
Senior Ministry of Defence sources said troops would fly to Ukraine in RAF transport planes to get people out.
The plans emerged as Russian President Vladimir Putin now has more than 100,000 troops on the border along with tanks, artillery and rocket launchers.
A source said: “If Russia invades, the situation in Ukraine will deteriorate rapidly.
“Britons still there will need help to escape. We have to be prepared for anything. Units are on standby.”
Business consultant Jez Myers, 44, from Manchester but now in Kyiv, told us an online group of expats stuck in the country has been set up to plan DIY escape routes.
He added: “There are troops and tanks on the border and Putin seems to want something.”
YouTube film-maker Dave Basset, 42, from Devon, lives 50 miles south of the capital and has a “go-bag” ready to flee.
He said: “Things are looking like something could happen.”
It is understood our soldiers will create evacuation centres at one or more civilian or military airfields with UK nationals advised to head for them.
It also emerged a 30-strong British special forces unit, believed to have been in the region for weeks, has been training Ukrainian troops in sabotage tactics.
This follows the disclosure the MoD has sent 2,000 light anti-tank weapons to Ukraine along with a team of 30 soldiers from the Ranger Regiment – part of the army’s newly formed Special Operations Brigade.
Military aid from America has also begun to arrive.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned an invasion of Ukraine would be “met with a severe
Britons will need help to escape. We have to be prepared for anything DEFENCE SOURCE ON PLANS FOR UKRAINE EVACUATION
and united response”. Earlier, he held 90-minute talks in Geneva with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
But many senior British defence sources believe Western allies have given Russia a “green light” to invade as they are in no position to strike back.
Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British troops in Afghanistan, told us: “Putin knows he can take whatever action he wants because NATO and the West are too weak to make
any effective