Special forces bid to save Brits in Ukraine
»»Troops poised to evacuate 1000 nationals by air or road »»Russian spies and soldiers infiltrating in large numbers
SPECIAL forces troops are ready to rescue more than 1000 British nationals if they become stranded in Ukraine.
A SAS-led evacuation mission is in place and Brits are being told to register with the skeleton embassy left in capital Kyiv.
From there they would be evacuated by air or bussed by road 350 miles east to Poland.
The plan is in place as Russian special forces and spies infiltrate Ukraine in “significant” numbers – the starkest warning so far of an oncoming war.
This could be an advance party to an attack by 126,000 regular forces gathered at Ukraine’s eastern flank, as well as thousands more in neighbouring Belarus. Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned British troops could soon be sent to eastern Europe to help bolster NATO against Russia.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee there were individuals already in Ukraine “linked to the Russian state in ways that are not conventional” and “that should give cause for concern”.
Ukraine’s SBU intelligence and security agency is working round the clock to seize Russian spooks, who are trying to undermine Ukraine’s defences.
Several have been arrested in the contested Donbas area and Ukraine has locked down security.
Britain has given thousands of NLAW anti-tank missiles to Kyiv’s forces to help them hold back a Russian armoured attack, along with 100 UK military trainers.
Wallace said: “Any crossing into Ukraine, whether small or large, would be viewed as a breach of that sovereignty, against international law and an invasion. You can’t be half-pregnant, you are either invading a country or you are not.”
On Tuesday, Johnson said the UK and its allies stand ready to impose “heavy economic sanctions” on Russia, amid fears of “bloodshed comparable to the first war in Chechnya or Bosnia”. The PM said: “If Russia pursues this path, many Russian mothers’ sons will not be coming home.
The response in the international community would be the same and the pain that would be inflicted on the Russian economy will be the same.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said his party “stands resolute” in supporting Ukraine.
Johnson said: “If President Putin was to choose the path of bloodshed and destruction, he must realise that it’d be both tragic and futile, and nor should we allow him to believe that he could easily take some smaller portion of Ukraine – to salami-slice –because the resistance would be ferocious.”
A senior source said:“We know the Germans and other countries are also planning to airlift their people and we are looking at using a road route to the Polish border, but it will be the Foreign Office’s call.”
The path of bloodshed and destruction, he must realise, will be both tragic and futile BORIS JOHNSON WARNING AGAINST WAR IN UKRAINE