UK PM Sunak says no plan 'here and now' to send military instructors in Ukraine to train troops

United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Sunday (Oct 1) shot down the plan byBritish defence minister Grant Shapps who said that thegovernment of Britain will be deploying military instructors in Ukraine, saying that it is notfor the “here and now”.

Sunak's remarks come afterShapps,in a newspaper interview, suggestedthat they would "eventually"like to moveBritain’s long-standing training of Ukrainian troops to their countryrather than in the UK.

However, the UK PM saidhe wanted to be "absolutely clear"about the situation after "some misreporting" and said that Britain has beentraining Ukrainian citizens and soldiers for a long time within the UK.

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"What the Defence Secretary was saying was that it might well be possible one day in the future for us to do some of that training in Ukraine," said Sunak.

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He added, "But that's something for the long term, not the here and now, there are no British soldiers that will be sent to fight in the current conflict; that's not what's happening. What we are doing is training Ukrainians; we're doing that here in the UK."

To date, Britain and its allies never had a formal military presence in Ukraine as they tried to avoid getting engaged in a direct conflict with Russia.

A five-week military training course was provided by Britain to nearly 20,000 Ukrainians in the past year, and the country now aims to train a similar number in days ahead.

While speaking to the Sunday Telegraph newspaper in an interview, Shapps said that they can provide military training within Ukraine after holding a discussion with British military chiefs on Friday (Sep 29).

"I was talking today about eventually getting the training brought closer and actually into Ukraine as well. Particularly in the west of the country, I think the opportunity now is to bring more things 'in the country'," he said.

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The minister added that he wished British defence companies like BAE Systems would go ahead with plans to establish arms factories in Ukraine.

Will make our defence industry a large military hub:Zelensky

On Saturday (Sep 30), Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky that he wished to turn Kyiv's defence industry into a "large military hub" by entering into a partnership with Western weapons manufacturers which can increase arms supplies for a counteroffensive of Ukraine against Russia.

On September 1,Sunak appointed Shapps as defence minister after his predecessor Ben Wallace resigned.

Meanwhile, specialists are also set to arrive in Ukraine in the days ahead to make plans to establish of production of military equipment which includes air defences, the Ukrainian president's chief of staff stated earlier.

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“I think very soon specialists will arrive here who will make a plan for our own production of everything that we need. First and foremost, this relates to air defences,” said Andriy Yermak.

Yermak spoke broadly about the visit of President Volodymyr Zelensky to the United States last week, however, it remained unclear if the specialists and the systems he was referring to would come from the United States.

The presidential aide also said that Ukraine was aiming to organise an international meeting of national security advisers to discuss the peace formula of Kyiv in the second half of October.

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