'Mixed signals' from Russia over threat of Ukraine invasion, says Boris Johnson

The Prime Minister believes that intelligence emerging today is still “not encouraging” with field hospitals being built, despite the apparent return to base of a number of Russian troops stationed near the neighbouring country.

Speaking after a high-level COBR meeting of Government officials this morning, Mr Johnson said: “Last night going into today, clearly there are signs of a diplomatic opening.”

He added that the “intelligence that we are seeing today is still not encouraging”, with Russian field hospitals being built close to Belarus’ border with Ukraine.

That could only be “construed as preparation for an invasion”, the Prime Minister added.

Despite the Russian claims about troop withdrawals, Mr Johnson said intelligence suggested “you have got more battalion tactical groups being brought closer to the border”.

“So, mixed signals, I think, at the moment,” Mr Johnson said.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has also stressed the threat of an invasion remains, as she confirmed some British embassy staff had moved out of the capital Kyiv to Lviv in western Ukraine, further away from the troops massing on the Russian side of the border.

“We have moved some staff to Lviv in the west of Ukraine. We still have staff in Kyiv,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today.

“We continue to review that. But we do think it is very important that we are supporting British citizens in Ukraine and we do have a presence in Kyiv, but, clearly, I’m constantly looking at our staff safety to make sure they are protected.”

She warned that a Russian invasion could reach the capital “very, very quickly” – and suggested a “false flag” operation might be mounted within days so Moscow could claim justification for an attack.

“They have troops stationed around Ukraine. So, there could be an attack on Kyiv. There could be an attack from the east,” she told Sky News.

“What we do expect over the next few days is there could be an attempt of a false flag operation to create a pretext to claim the Ukrainians are attacking them, so that the Russians have a justification for invading Ukraine.”

Reports from Russia indicated that units of the southern and western military districts were returning to base following the conclusion of training exercises.

The news broke while Ms Truss was conducting a round of broadcast interviews and she told LBC Radio she had not seen the reports and “would need to see more details to understand if that has any major implications”.