Minister insists NATO troops will NOT be sent into Ukraine

‘Will we declare war on Russia? No’: Armed Forces Minister James Heappey insists NATO troops will not be sent in to Ukraine as he admits ‘ultimate economic sanction’ of removing Russia from the SWIFT system will require ‘further diplomacy’

• James Heappey warned further financial penalties were being delayed in courts 
• Reiterated  desire to see Russia expelled from SWIFT international pay system 
• The Armed Forces Minister said he was inspired by everyday Ukrainians’ fighting 
• But he stopped short of committing NATO troops setting foot in Ukraine 

NATO troops will not set foot in the Ukrainian theatre of war as Britain presses ahead with its plans to enact the ‘ultimate economic sanction’ and boot Russia out of the SWIFT international payment network.

Armed Forces Minister James Heappey warned that any further financial penalties were being held up in the courts and reiterated the Government’s desire to see Russia expelled from the international SWIFT banking system.

Speaking during his media round of interviews on Saturday morning, Mr Heappey also stopped short of committing sending NATO troops to fight in Ukraine.

‘You’re asking me if we will declare war on Russia? No,’ was his answer when pressed by veteran journalist Martha Kearney on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

In later comments to the BBC, he said the Government’s position on removing Russia from the international SWIFT financial servers was clear.

‘The reality is that SWIFT is not a unilateral decision the UK can take. If it were, the Government’s position is clear and we will push ahead with every means at our disposal.

‘Clearly, it’s the ultimate economic sanction. It’s the one the UK government wants to see enacted.’ 

It comes as Defence Secretary Ben Wallace last night chaired a donors conference with 25 nations, some of whom pledged to send arms and other humanitarian aid.

‘We know what the Ukrainians want. We are doing our best to get it to them,’ Mr Heappey told Sky News.

Mr Heappey made clear that heavy bombardment of Ukrainian cities remained a ‘very real possibility’ if Vladimir Putin feared his initial advance was stalling

SWIFT (the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) is the main vehicle for financing international trade and operates as the main secure messaging system used by banks to make instantaneous cross-border payments. 

In 2020, there were approximately 38 million transactions sent via SWIFT each day. 

Armed Forces Minister James Heappey claimed that further financial penalties were being delayed because of ‘due diligence’, and reiterated the Government’s desire to see Russia expelled from the international SWIFT banking system. 

The developments come as Britain’s plan to hit Putin’s inner circle with hard-hitting sanctions is being held up in the courts due to ‘well-lawyered-up’ Russia oligarchs, a minister has warned. 

London law firms are said to be delaying sanctions levelled against key Russian clients by threatening to drag a challenge to the measures through Britain’s courts, Liz Truss told MPs on Friday.  

Ms Truss had been asked why the sanctions process had not been moving more quickly, and she told MPs it was ‘because they had to be very careful that when they sanctioned somebody it was legally watertight because these oligarchs’ lawyers in London are very litigious, and she had already had several warning letters from them’.

Labour MP Ben Bradshaw called for the law firms in question to be named in the first instance, but also potentially subject to sanctions themselves.

‘(They should be) not only named and shamed, but any law firm or any British institution that works on behalf of any sanctioned Russian should themselves be subjected to the same sanctions,’ he said.

Currently, eight oligarchs have been named and shamed as part of British sanctions, while more than 100 other individuals, entities and subsidiaries were hit with tough measures. 

Armed Forces Minister James Heappey (pictured) warned that any further financial penalties were being held up in the courts and reiterated the Government’s desire to see Russia expelled from the international SWIFT banking system

A view shows an apartment building damaged by recent shelling in Kyiv, Ukraine on Saturday morning

Firefighters extinguish fire in a high-rise apartment block which was hit by recent shelling in Kyiv on Saturday

Ukrainian servicemen take cover as an air-raid siren sounds, near an apartment building damaged by recent shelling in Kyiv

Mr Heappey also said Britain and other Western allies would continue to support the Ukrainians in every way they could.

‘The more the Ukrainians successfully resist, the more I think they will be emboldened. People are rallying to the flag,’ he told ITV.

‘There is every chance President Putin has bitten off more than he can chew.

‘We, like Ukraine’s other allies in the West, will continue to support them in every way we reasonably can but we have to be very clear-eyed about the size of the Russian force he has amassed against them.’

Mr Heappey said the Government were looking at the ‘next phases’ of sending essential supplies of helmets, protective jackets and medical aid. 

But he stopped short of committing any NATO troops setting foot in the Ukrainian theatre of war when pressed.

Mr Heappey also said that Russian claims that they had captured the city of Melitopol, close to the key Ukrainian port of Mariupol, on Saturday morning were as of yet unsubstantiated.

He made clear that heavy bombardment of Ukrainian cities remained a ‘very real possibility’ if Putin feared his initial advance was stalling. 

But the former British Army officer said he was personally inspired by the bravery of every-day Ukrainians taking up arms to defend their homeland, describing their actions as ‘extraordinary and heroic’.

Mr Heappey said the situation was ‘very grave’ but that the fighting Kyiv was so far confined to ‘very isolated pockets of Russian special forces and paratroopers’.

‘The main armored columns from Belarus going to encircle Kyiv are still someway north because they’ve been held up by this incredible Ukrainian resistance,’ he told BBC R4 Today.

‘Clearly the Russian plan is to take Kyiv but the reality is that the Ukrainians are thwarting them thus far. It looks like the Russian plan is nowhere near running to schedule.’

Mr Heappey said the Government was working on plans to support a resistance movement and a Ukrainian government in exile if Kyiv does fall.

‘That is a decision for the National Security Council to take but it is something that the Prime Minister has asked us in the Ministry of Defence to look at and plan for,’ he said.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, posted a video on social media on Saturday morning insisting that his country would fight on

Helga Tarasova hugs her daugther Kira Shapovalova as they wait in a undergound shelter during bombing alert in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv

Ukrainian soldiers investigate debris of a burning military truck on a street in Kyiv, Ukraine on Saturday

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