– It is a fact that Ukraine is not a member of NATO, so there is little chance that someone would send troops to Ukraine to challenge Russia in such a scenario. I think it is clear. We must not deceive people that this will happen, and Ukrainians are aware of it, Wallace said in an interview published with the weekly “The Spectator” on Saturday.

As the magazine recalls, Wallace has so far been fairly vague about the scope of British aid to Ukraine, saying only that we can activate “defense capabilities” against Vladimir Putin. The Spectator predicts that in the face of this new announcement, the strongest British military response will be the sale of arms to Ukraine.

– We have not yet entered the zone of lethal aid. We are constantly exploring every possibility,’ Wallace said.

Asked if this meant Ukraine was on its own, the defense minister replied: “All we can do is help with capacity building, but to some extent, Ukraine is not in NATO and therefore, diplomatically, Together, we’re doing everything we can. Tell President Putin: Don’t do it. He recalled that in talks with Putin this week, both British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other Western leaders warned him was that in the event of aggression against Ukraine, Russia was threatened with deep and severe economic sanctions with long-lasting consequences.

The British defense minister said there was a debate among Western leaders about whether Putin would actually attack and how soon Russia could annex Ukrainian territory. – The Russian Military Assembly has a purpose. We are not sure whether Putin made his decision, but his actions and military preparedness show. I think we should all be concerned, Wallace admitted.

On Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued its demands for “security guarantees” from NATO in exchange for the withdrawal of troops from the Ukrainian border. The most important of these is a commitment by the coalition that it would not accept as members countries that were once part of the Soviet Union, or station its troops there.