Yorkshire MP meets with Ukrainian officials to discuss threat of Russian invasion

It comes after he visited Ukraine last week with Labour colleague David Lammy to discuss the situation with Government officials and offer support.

Tensions between Ukraine and Russia are fraught, with the US suggesting Moscow is preparing for a “false-flag operation” in order to spark an incursion into neighbouring territory.

The Russians have amassed around 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border and been accused of carrying out a major cyber attack last week, which took out key government websites, in order to destabilise Ukraine prior to a physical invasion.

“The risk now is that Vladimir Putin decides to invade Ukraine again and miscalculates in doing so,“ Mr Healey told The Yorkshire Post.

“The Russian forces are far superior, but Ukraine is a very different country than it was in 2014 when he annexed Crimea and Russian proxies invaded part of eastern Ukraine.

“Since then, public support for joining the European Union and NATO has hugely increased, and Putin’s been the best recruiting sergeant for that case.

“Ukraine has a stronger sense of identity, a stronger resolve to resist Russia and a stronger military, so that any invasion will be bloody on both sides and Russia will be seen as invading and occupying, not liberating.”

Mr Healey, who is also the MP for Wentworth and Dearne, added: “They were hugely encouraged and felt very supported by the strength of the international unity, especially at the NATO-Russia meeting on Thursday when every one of the 30 NATO nations insisted on speaking and giving Russia the same message.

“They said Russia's demand for a veto over Ukraine or Georgia joining NATO is unacceptable - it's the sovereign right of any country to decide whether or not to join NATO - and Russia's demand that NATO withdraw forces from already existing NATO members was also entirely unacceptable.

“Ukrainians also really welcomed the UK military support. It's been training and defensive - it's been support to help the country defend itself."

Russia has repeatedly called on NATO to stop expanding east, stating it should not allow Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations to become members or deploy NATO troops to those countries.

Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Defence secretary Ben Wallace issued a warning, claiming there would be consequences of any Russian aggression towards Ukraine.

He also revealed the UK has supplied Ukraine with anti-tank missles.

He added: “There is still a way to go. We still have NATO, we still have our alliance, we still have the international community and its efforts to try and find a diplomatic solution. We will carry on doing that until the very last moment.

“President Putin has still not made a final decision, but I hope that is enough to ward off the Kremlin - a united front on sanctions, which is what we are developing, so we are prepared and ready if something were to happen.”

He added: “If Russia attacks militarily, the first and foremost response, as we’ve said, will be sanctions and diplomacy.”