Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MoD PLANS TO AIRLIFT 1,000 BRITS IF WAR STARTS
PLOTTING
EXCLUSIVE JACK CLOVER
BY and
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
Putin knows NATO and the West are too weak to make any effective response COL RICHARD KEMP FORMER AFGHANISTAN COMMANDER
response. He learnt this when he invaded Crimea with no real consequences and when his nerve gas and polonium attacks in Britain received little effective counter action.
ABANDONMENT
“NATO’s abandonment of Afghanistan to the Taliban last year told him there is no political will in the West to defend itself or its allies.
“Continued weakening of Western forces, including Britain’s recent defence cuts, leaves us not only impotent politically but also militarily.
“It is time for us to remember strength deters and weakness provokes.” Tory MP Tobias Ellwood, defence select committee chairman, echoed the colonel’s words.
He said Mr Putin was “taking full advantage of a weakened West” and suspects an invasion is imminent.
Mr Ellwood warned the Russian leader was “redrawing the map of Eastern Europe”, adding: “It’s so important we step forward.
“He wants a legacy, to be seen as the most powerful state in Europe.”
Mr Ellwood suggested Mr Putin had “boxed himself into a corner” with around 100,000 Russian troops amassed on the border “but he also recognises he will never again be as strong as this”.
He said: “This is more than just about Ukraine, this is about Putin wanting to establish a sphere of influence way beyond Ukraine itself.”
Meanwhile, Britain has accused Mr Putin of plotting to install a pro-Moscow leader to head the government in Ukraine.
The Foreign Office took the unusual step of naming former Ukrainian MP Yevhen Murayev as a potential Kremlin candidate to take over in Kyiv.
It comes as Western allies stepped up warnings that Russia will pay a heavy price for any kind of incursion.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Russian plotting showed how far the Kremlin was prepared to go to undermine Ukraine’s government. She said: “It shines a light on the extent of Russian activity designed to subvert Ukraine. Russia must de-escalate, end its campaigns of aggression and pursue a path of diplomacy.
“Any Russian military incursion into Ukraine would be a massive strategic mistake with severe costs.”
Mr Murayev, a media owner, lost his seat in the Ukrainian parliament when his party failed to secure 5% of the vote in elections in 2019.
He has reportedly spoken out in the past in support of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.