The UK armed forces minister has said he would support a Nato forward base in Ukraine following the conclusion of the ongoing conflict there.

Quizzed over the idea by Times Radio this morning, James Heappey stressed that he would: “Absolutely,” support a base in the west of the country, stating:

“Ukraine is a sovereign country and the Ukrainian government still has a sovereign right to have whoever it wishes into its country.

“Now, I think that whilst there are active combat operations within Ukraine we are still in the same place as the discussion that you and I were having two or
three months ago at the start of this around why Nato and the West should avoid being actively involved so that it doesn’t escalate and become a European war.

“But if we reach a point where the conflict starts to freeze on or around the line of control in the Donbas, I think it very likely that we will get very quickly back to where we were prior to February 2022 where everywhere else in Ukraine other than the Donbas the West was very present and involved in arming and training the Ukrainian armed forces.”

Heappey also said he approves of Ukrainian strikes in Russia, telling the radio station: “The fact is that Ukraine is a sovereign country that was living peacefully within its owner borders and then another country decided to violate those borders and bring 130,000 troops across into their country.

“That started a war between Ukraine and Russia, and in war Ukraine needs to strike into its opponents’ depth, to attack its logistics lines, its fuel supplies, its ammunition depots, and that’s part of it.”

He also said it was: “completely legitimate for Ukraine to be targeting in Russia’s depth in order to disrupt the logistics that if they weren’t disrupted would directly contribute to death and carnage on Ukrainian soil”.