Sir Keir Starmer has been warned the British Army may be too small to deploy troops to Ukraine for peacekeeping.
The prime minister told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby during a trip to Kyiv on Thursday the UK would play its “full part” in any peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.
He said that would include deploying British troops for peacekeeping because Moscow’s aggression also impacts the UK “and our values, our freedom, our democracy”.
However, former top military officers warned the UK would struggle to provide the thousands of soldiers needed.
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Richard Dannatt, former head of the army, said 5,000 to 10,000 soldiers would be needed to safeguard Ukraine’s border with Russia, while the Royal Navy would need to continue patrolling the Black Sea and the RAF would continue to provide air cover and reconnaissance.
Government minister Lisa Nandy hinted there were worries the army is not large enough to provide peacekeeping forces as she blamed its size on the previous Conservative government.
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Asked if there is concern the army is too small for a peacekeeping mission, she told Sky News: “We inherited an army that was at its smallest size for hundreds of years.
“Consistently, in opposition, we raised concerns about that and the misguided approach of the last government.
“We are working hard to make good on that promise to increase the amount of defence spending and to support our armed forces.”
She added that the government’s commitment to NATO is “unshakeable”.
The latest figures from October 2024 show the British Army had 74,612 regular personnel – the smallest number since 1800, when compared with the population size.
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The prime minister’s spokesman reacted to concerns the army would not have enough troops by saying the October budget increased defence spending by £2.9bn and the government is “committed to setting a path to 2.5%” of GDP being spent on defence.
Lord Dannatt told The i Paper: “I don’t think the size of our army is large enough to do that [peacekeeping in Ukraine] with everything else that it’s doing currently. I think we would struggle.
“We could do it, but then we would have to certainly put more resources into the army, and set about growing the size of the army. It’s a major issue that relates directly to the future size of the British Army. You start to run out of troops quite quickly.”
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Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, former head of the British Army’s chemical weapons unit, said any peacekeeping mission would place a “huge amount” of pressure on the defence budget.
It would mean the army “would be able to do nothing else”.
“At the worst case, it’s the whole of the British military being involved,” he told The i.
“The least worst case, it’s providing some command and control of a brigade of tanks and infantry.”
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