A leading defence journalist has warned that Russia has the capabilities to invade Ukraine in a ‘matter of days’, and could choose to do so during the upcoming Winter Olympics.

Shashank Joshi defence editor at The Economist, made the comments whilst giving evidence to the foreign affairs committee’s one-off session on the situation in Ukraine.

Joshi said he believes “Russia could execute military operations on a very, very short time scale with the forces it has available”.

The Economist’s defence editor added that although an invasion of Ukraine would leave Russia more reliant on its relationship with china, launching an offensive during the Beijing Olympics would not be “a hard constraint”.