Government says British personnel ready to arrive in Ukraine once fighting on hold

The UK Government has already backed plans to set up a "Multinational Force Ukraine"

This comes after Russian President Vladmir Putin met with American President Donald Trump in Anchorage in Alaska yesterday in an attempt to find a solution to the fighting in eastern Europe.

Despite claiming to have come to "agreements" on certain matters, a deal could not be struck that would see peace between Ukraine and Russia.

After months of disagreements and tension over the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump finally met in the US state of Alaska yesterday.

Ukraine has been in a state of crisis for over three years after Putin’s Russian military forces invaded the Eastern European nation without provocation in February 2022.

When elected as US President last November, Trump said he would end the war on day one, but no such agreement has yet materialised.

A four hour meeting between the two leaders in Anchorage, Alaska was followed up by a press conference where Trump and Putin gave differing impressions of the outcome of their discussions.

Earlier this summer the UK Government backed efforts to set up a "Multinational Force Ukraine", a military plan that would harden Ukraine's defences once the conflict has simmered down.

The idea behind the move would be to ward off future aggressions from Russia.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said: "Planning has continued on an enduring basis to ensure that a force can deploy in the days following the cessation of hostilities.”

The government said: “Along with securing Ukraine’s skies and supporting safer seas, the force is expected to regenerate land forces by providing logistics, armaments, and training expertise”.

It added that the move “will strengthen Ukraine’s path to peace and stability by supporting the regeneration of Ukraine’s own forces”.

Plans for the force were drafted last month following a meeting of military chiefs in Paris.

The plans saw co-ordination from the EU, Nato, the US and more than 200 planners.

While Putin suggested that the two had reached some “agreements” on ending the war — adding that there should be “optimism” over the situation and added that Russia does want to end the war — Trump simply responded to reporters with: “There’s no deal until there’s a deal.”

Speaking via a translator, Putin then said: “I agree with President Trump, as he has said today, that naturally, the security of Ukraine should be ensured as well.

“Naturally we are prepared to work on that, I would like to hope that the agreement that we’ve reached together will help us bring closer that goal and will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine.

“We expect that Kyiv and European capitals will perceive that constructively and that they won’t throw a wrench in the works.”

Putin then warned other European nations against “backroom dealings to conduct provocations to torpedo the nascent progress.”

The 72-year-old also stressed that there were certain conditions that are required to ensure peace from a Russian perspective.

Putin said any peace deal must “consider all legitimate concerns of Russia and to reinstate a just balance of security in Europe and in world on the whole.”