The British military will not be in Ukraine in the event of an escalation of the situation, the Ministry of Defense of the kingdom said. On February 12-13, military instructors who taught Ukrainian servicemen to handle anti-tank missiles will leave the country. British military instructors who trained Ukrainian servicemen to handle anti-tank guided missiles supplied by London will leave the republic on February 12-13. This was announced by the Deputy Minister of Defense of the United Kingdom, James Hippie.

“There were British troops in Ukraine who trained the Ukrainian military, we trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers, in recent weeks we provided defensive anti-tank systems, and some instructors were sent to help the Ukrainian military with the weapons system,” Hippie said on the air of the TV channel sky news.

“All [instructors] will be taken out. In Ukraine, in the event of a conflict, there will be not a single British soldier,” he stressed.

The hippie said that the military instructors "leave during the weekend."

He also drew attention to the fact that the British authorities will not be able to evacuate their subjects from Ukraine in the event of an invasion by Russian troops.

“We are hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. British subjects must immediately leave Ukraine by any means possible. They should not hope that, as was the case in the summer in Afghanistan, there will be any opportunity to [organize] a military evacuation. They must leave [Ukraine] now,” he said.

According to him, the weapons available to Russia will allow it to “launch an attack without warning.”

Earlier, the British Foreign Office recommended that its subjects in Ukraine leave immediately due to the threat of "military action."

There are currently 100 British military instructors in the country. Britain has repeatedly pointed out that they are not going to send military units of their army to Ukraine in the event of an aggravation of the situation. In total, as part of the Orbital training mission of the British Ministry of Defense in Ukraine, which began in 2015, about 22,000 Ukrainian military personnel were trained, according to the mission's Facebook.

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Who else trains the Ukrainian army?

There is a unit of Lithuanian military instructors in Ukraine who should help the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the implementation of the military reform by training personnel, introducing Western standards into the army. On February 11, it became known about a possible increase in the group of instructors.

“Lithuania will increase the number of military instructors stationed in Ukraine and will soon hand over Stinger anti-aircraft missiles,” Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte was quoted as saying by TASS.

The number of instructors and the transferred amount of air defense systems is not specified.

The Canadian military has been training soldiers and officers of the Ukrainian army at the Yavoriv training ground in the Lviv region since 2015 as part of Operation Unifier. The mission consists of about 200 people. They have already trained about 30,000 soldiers and officers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as more than 2,000 National Guard soldiers. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau noted that Canadian military instructors will continue to be in Ukraine until 2025, and their number will eventually grow to 400 people.

Latvia also promised to send its military instructors to Ukraine. According to TASS, she intends to work together with the Canadian military.

The US has been sending military instructors to Ukraine since at least 2015. The composition of instructors changed regularly, however, it is known from open sources that in 2016-2017 there were 310 military personnel in Ukraine who trained five battalions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In addition, the Armed Forces of Ukraine cooperate with military instructors from Sweden, Israel, Georgia and Estonia.

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