Defence Secretary Ben Wallace paid a shock go to to Ukraine yesterday for talks on Britain’s army support within the warfare in opposition to Russia.

Mr Wallace met his counterpart Oleksii Reznikov in Kyiv to debate the UK’s provide of long-range cruise missiles to the war-torn nation.

Their chat got here forward of as we speak’s digital assembly of countries which again President Volodymyr Zelensky’s battle in opposition to Vladimir Putin.

The Ukraine Defense Contact Group will plan methods of bolstering its forces’ air defences and armoured manoeuvre capabilities.

Britain equipped Storm Shadow rockets in response to Putin’s personal use of long-range missiles to kill harmless folks, with Mr Wallace telling the Commons: “We will not stand by while Russia kills civilians.

“[Missiles] will let Ukraine push back Russian forces based within Ukrainian sovereign territory.”

Mr Reznikov stated yesterday: “We talked about the ongoing training of our servicemen on British territory, about the main priorities and importance of this training.

“We had the opportunity to shake hands with pilots who trained in Britain and are already successfully using the Storm Shadow.”

Mr Wallace introduced the additional hearth energy two weeks in the past and made Britain the primary western nation to ship long-range weapons to President Zelensky’s forces.

It will enable them to strike deep into Russian-held territory and disrupt provide traces earlier than their spring offensive.

Storm Shadow cruise missiles have a spread of about 155 miles, so they might hit Moscow-annexed Crimea.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence revealed that greater than 1,000 Russian troops have gone absent with out depart to date this yr.

Putin’s management has damaged down since he started recruiting greater than 300,000 reservists final October.

He additionally allowed Russian prisoners to be signed up by the Wagner mercenary group.

An MoD briefing stated: “Court data suggests most of those found guilty of going AWOL are now punished with suspended sentences, so they can be redeployed.

“Russia’s efforts to improve discipline have focused on making examples of defaulters and promoting patriotic zeal, rather than addressing…disillusionment.”