Rishi Sunak has made clear that Defence Secretary Grant Shapps’ suggestion that British troops could train forces in Ukraine is not for the “here and now” during the war against the Russian invasion.

The Prime Minister on ruled out UK forces going to Ukraine and said that the recently appointed political head of the Ministry of Defence was discussing possible plans for the “long term.”

Mr Shapps made the comments during a visit to Salisbury Plain on Friday, September 29.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said any British troops in Ukraine would be legitimate targets for the Kremlin’s forces.

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On a visit to Burnley ahead of the Tory party conference getting underway in Manchester, Mr Sunak said he wants to be “absolutely clear” about the situation following “some misreporting.”

He said that Britain has been training Ukrainian citizens and soldiers “for a long time” within the UK.

Mr Sunak added: “And what the Defence Secretary was saying was that it might well be possible one day in the future for us to do some of that training in Ukraine.

“But that’s something for the long term, not the here and now, there are no British soldiers that will be sent to fight in the current conflict. That’s not what’s happening. What we are doing is training Ukrainians. We’re doing that here in the UK.”

Mr Shapps had said he had spoken with Army chiefs about moving “more training” into Ukraine and called on British defence firms to set up production in the country.

Mr Shapps was briefed by General Sir Patrick Sanders, Chief of the General Staff, and other senior figures on his visit to Salisbury Plain.

He said: “I was talking about eventually getting the training brought closer and actually into Ukraine as well.

“Particularly in the west of the country, I think the opportunity now is to bring more things in country, and not just training. We’re seeing BAE, for example, move into manufacturing in country.

“I’m keen to see other British companies do their bit as well by doing the same thing.”

More than 20,000 recruits from Ukraine have received training in the UK since the start of 2022, but Nato members have avoided training programmes in Ukraine due to the risk of personnel being drawn into combat with Russia.