UK troops to be sent to Ukraine

Up to 75 British military personnel will deploy to Ukraine next month to provide advice and training to government forces, Prime Minister David Cameron has announced.

The UK servicemen will be based well away from the areas of conflict in the east of the country, and will offer support with medical, intelligence, logistics and infantry training. There has been no decision to move to supplying lethal weaponry to the Kiev government.

The deployment was announced as Mr Cameron warned of "deeply damaging" consequences for the whole of Europe if the EU fails to stand up to Russian president Vladimir Putin in Ukraine. If he is not reined in, Mr Putin could target the Baltic states or Moldova next, creating instability which would have a "dreadful" impact on the UK economy, said the Prime Minister.

Vladimir Putin said armed conflict was in no-one's interest

Addressing the House of Commons Liaison Committee, Mr Cameron vowed t hat Britain would be "the strongest pole in the tent" arguing for tougher sanctions against Moscow if Russian-backed militias in eastern Ukraine fail to observe the ceasefire agreement reached in Minsk on February 12. It would be "miraculous" if the terms of the agreement were met in full, he said.

Further destabilisation should be met by sanctions which are "materially different" from the asset freezes and travel bans imposed so far, perhaps involving Russia's exclusion from the Swift international banking payments system, said the Prime Minister.

Mr Cameron also indicated he is ready to give the BBC more funding to provide news services to counter " the deluge of Russian-paid and backed media spreading disinformation" in the region.

Foreign ministers of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France meeting in Paris failed to reach agreement over the withdrawal of heavy weapons by both sides from the front line, which was promised in the Minsk accord.

Ukrainian foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin said there was progress on some "technical aspects" but no agreement on apportioning blame for the sporadic violence which has continued following the ceasefire deal, particularly around the strategic railway town of Debaltseve.

Asked on Russian television if there was a real threat of war in eastern Ukraine, Mr Putin is reported to have said: "I think that such an apocalyptic scenario is unlikely and I hope this will never happen ... No one wants conflict on the edge of Europe, especially armed conflict."

But the EU's high representative for foreign affairs Federica Mogherini said there already was a war and the Minsk agreement represented the best hope for peace.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We have to make it succeed. This is the only agreement that was signed by the parties, it has been supported by the UN Security Council resolution and it is the only way we have to make peace possible in Ukraine."

Setting out details of the new UK military mission, Mr Cameron told the Liaison Committee: "We are not at the stage of supplying lethal equipment. We have announced a whole series of non-lethal equipment, night-vision goggles, body armour, which we have already said that we will give to Ukraine.

"Over the course of the next month we are going to be deploying British service personnel to provide advice and a range of training, from tactical intelligence to logistics to medical care, which is something else they have asked for.

"We will also be developing an infantry training programme with Ukraine to improve the durability of their forces. This will involve a number of British service personnel. They will be away from the area of conflict but I think this is the sort of thing we should be helping with."

Mr Cameron said the EU should go ahead with the extension of sanctions which were put on hold earlier this year and there would be an "overwhelming" argument for tougher measures against Moscow if separatists targeted the sea-port of Mariupol, which is widely seen as the next potential flashpoint.

He acknowledged that it would be "difficult" to achieve unanimity on the continuation of EU sanctions when they come up for renewal in July, but added that "the horrors of Debaltseve" should show Europe "who we are dealing with and how firm we need to be".

"I think that if, miraculously, heavy weapons are withdrawn, ceasefires are held, elections start, and all the elements of Minsk are put in place, I think you'd see people wanting to lighten the sanctions load," he said. "But if we don't see that, you will get a different view.

"Britain's role is to be at the tougher end of the spectrum, to try to keep the European Union and the United States together, and I think we should be clear about this pattern of behaviour we've seen from Putin now over many years."

It was "only a firm stand that will be taken notice of by the Kremlin," said the Prime Minister. While further sanctions would cause "short-term pain" to European economies, he warned that "the instability we will yield if we don't stand up to Russia in the long term will be deeply damaging to all of us".

"You will see further destabilisation - next it will be Moldova or one of the Baltic states - and that sort of instability and uncertainty will be dreadful for our economies, dreadful for our stability."

Mr Cameron played down recent high-profile episodes where Russian bombers had been escorted off the British coast, telling MPs the UK was "more than capable of protecting our air space" and adding that it was not clear there had been any increase in the number of incidents.

And he said the UK should have "confidence" in its dealings with Russia, whose economy was ailing due to sanctions and falling oil prices and which had not enjoyed the "fantastic success" it claimed in Ukraine.

"Because a couple of Russian planes fly around the Channel, we shouldn't talk ourselves in to a situation where we think somehow we cannot defend ourselves. We absolutely can," said the Prime Minister.

Ms Mogherini indicated that US proposals to supply arms to the Ukrainian military could be a distraction from the peace process. The Kiev authorities were concentrating on making the Minsk agreement work and "talking about anything else makes it more difficult", she said.

Mr Cameron said he had not ruled out "forever" supplying lethal equipment, but told MPs: "We've had National Security Council discussions, we've had very clear decisions that we should be in the space of providing non-lethal support ... W e don't believe, fundamentally, there is some military solution to this issue."

Britain's Ambassador to the United Nations told the UN Security Council that recent days had seen "systematic" breaches of the Minsk accord, and said the UK will work to ensure that sanctions on Russia remain in place until Moscow demonstrates a clear commitment to the principles of dialogue, peace and security. So far there had been "few signs of Moscow's willingness to engage constructively", he said.

Sir Mark Lyall Grant said that, since February 12, the monitoring mission of the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) had observed " continuous breaches of the ceasefire that threaten to destabilise eastern Ukraine further, and undermine the Minsk agreements in their entirety".

He said: "Minsk called for a ceasefire to begin on 15 February and for the withdrawal of heavy weaponry to start from 16 February. Yet within 40 minutes of coming into effect, the ceasefire was shattered by a Russian-backed separatist offensive on Debaltseve. On 19 February, Ukrainian forces withdrew from the city. Scores of Ukrainian soldiers were left dead or injured.

"The continued presence of Russian military hardware, including Uragan rocket launchers and T-72 tanks around Debaltseve, shows that Russia's commitment to withdraw foreign military formations - which was a key element of the Minsk agreements - has been disregarded. The OSCE report that convoys are still crossing the international border and the shelling persists in Donetsk and Luhansk in clear violation of the ceasefire."

Sir Mark said: "As a signatory to the Minsk agreements, Russia needs to ensure that the separatist forces respect the ceasefire. And it must fulfil its own commitment to fully withdraw the heavy weapons it has supplied them with and its military formations from Ukrainian territory."

And he added: "Nearly a year on from the illegal annexation of Crimea, we are faced with a crisis that has expanded far beyond the Black Sea and now threatens the security of the region, and the credibility of this Council. The pattern is familiar from Russian behaviour in Georgia and Moldova. Agreements are reached, ceasefires arranged, territorial gains consolidated. In Ukraine, these agreements are systematically breached within days, the violence resumes and the push for more territory begins again."

It was " in no-one's interests to return to an era where agreements between leaders become worthless", said Sir Mark, urging the Security Council to ensure that there are "clear consequences" for any further breaches of the Minsk agreement.