To date, Britain and its allies have avoided a formal military presence in Ukraine to reduce the risk of a direct conflict with Russia.
British defence minister Grant Shapps, who was appointed to the role last month, said in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph newspaper that he wanted to deploy military instructors to Ukraine, in addition to training Ukrainian armed forces in Britain or other Western countries.
“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,” Sunak told reporters at the start of the governing Conservative Party’s annual conference in Manchester.
Shapps added that he hoped British defence companies such as BAE Systems (BAES.L) would proceed with plans to set up arms factories in Ukraine.
Shapps also said hundreds of British peacekeeping troops were being sent to Kosovo in the coming days after the worst violence in north of the country in years.
British fighter jets were also sent to Poland this weekend, Shapps said, to help protect NATO’s eastern flank following a request from the Polish government ahead of the country’s national elections this month.
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