Russia Warns British Soldiers Could Be Legitimate Targets If They Train Ukraine's Military, PM Sunak: No One Sends

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. (Wikimedia Commons/Downing Street No.10 Lauren winding)

JAKARTA - British Prime Minister said on Sunday it had no plans to send instructors to provide training in Ukraine, with Russia issuing a stern warning if such shipments are realized.

Despite providing assistance with military equipment to training abroad, Britain and its allies have so far avoided their formal military presence, to reduce the risk of direct conflict with Russia.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph newspaper, British Defense Minister Grant Shapps said he wanted to deploy military instructors to Ukraine, in addition to providing training abroad.

Hours after the interview was published, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said there were no plans to send British troops to Ukraine in the near future.

"It's possible, one day we can do some training in Ukraine," PM Sunak told reporters at the start of the annual conference of Manchester's ruling Conservative Party.

"But it is something for the long term, not for now. No British soldiers will be sent to fight in the current conflict," said PM Sunak.

As previously reported, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Sunday stated that British troops training Ukrainian troops in Ukraine would be a legitimate target for Russian troops.

"(This will) turn their instructor into the legitimate target of our armed forces," Medvedev wrote on Telegram.

"Understanding well that they will be brutally destroyed. And not as mercenaries, but as British NATO specialists," he stressed.

Medvedev's warning was delivered after the new British Defense Minister Grant Shapps in an interview said he wanted to send military instructors to Ukraine to train the country's military directly, in addition to training them in the UK and other Western countries as is currently underway.

Last week, Shapps visited Ukraine for the first time as defense minister after his appointment.

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Shapps said there was room to offer military training in Ukraine, after discussions on Friday with British military leaders.

"I spoke today about the possibility of bringing the training closer and actually to Ukraine as well," he was quoted as saying.

"Especially in the western region of the country, I think the opportunity now is to bring more things 'in the country'," he added.

It is known that so far the UK has provided military training courses for five weeks to around 20,000 Ukrainians in the past year, and intends to train the same number in the future.