British forces could give support and training to Ukrainians in their battle against Vladimir Putin’s “invasion”, James Heappey suggested.

But personnel would have to be kept away from the frontline, to prevent sparking a conflict between Russia and NATO.

He also warned the UK’s armed forces were running “incredibly hot” and that the UK had to be better prepared for a potential war, amid growing threats around the world.

One way of achieving this could be through a large “strategic reserve” force of thousands of veterans, who could be called up at a time of national crisis, he said in an interview with Sky News.

Asked about the possibility of western troops on the ground in Ukraine, he stated: “I think you’ve got to be careful about how you do it. I think definitely nowhere near a combat zone. I think you’ve got to be very, very careful not to make it into a Russo-NATO war.

“But I do think it is worth exploring what in the sort of deeper – in the depth of Ukraine – the donor community could do.”

On British troops on a training mission inside Ukraine, he added: “I think it is worth considering.”

The ex-minister, who stepped down from his role last month, warned that if personnel were pushed “too hard” many could leave.

He told Sky News: “The reality is is that we are running them incredibly hot.”

He also predicted “we are going to be running our forces as busy as they are for a very long time to come and if we are going to do that, bearing in mind that they have an absolute right to leave when we push them too hard and lots of them are, we need a bigger force in order to be able to meet the ambition”.

Heappey has urged Rishi Sunak to increase defence spending now to 2.5 per cent of GDP.

Another former defence minister said any deployment of UK troops to Ukraine would have to be done as part of a wider coalition.

“If we were to send any troops ourselves, I think it would need to be done as part of a coalition,” Tobias Ellwood stated, adding, “The call by Ukraine right now is actually not for personnel, it is desperately for equipment.”

Earlier this week President Zelensky warned Ukraine would “will lose the war” if the United States Congress did not approve billions in military aid being held up by Republican politicians.

The parliament in Kiev approved the long-debated law but without the demobilization clause, reportedly at the urging of General Aleksandr Syrsky, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces. This means that everyone drafted into the armed forces will have to serve until the conflict is over.

“It’s a disaster,” AFP quoted a 46-year-old artilleryman on the Donetsk front, identified only as Alexander.

“When a person knows when he is going to be demobilized he will have a different attitude. If he is like a slave then it will not lead to anything good,” he added.

Soldier Yegor Firsov posted a rant about the new law on Facebook, arguing that the troops already in service have been “demotivated” by the last-minute change and feel “fooled and used”.

“It says our efforts are not appreciated,” Firsov wrote, according to Politico’s EU edition, which noted the discontent among “war-weary troops”.

Ukraine has mobilized tens of thousands of troops since the conflict with Russia escalated in 2022. Kiev has struggled to keep frontline units above 35% strength, however, due to mounting casualties. President Volodymyr Zelensky recently signed a law allowing the conscription of 25-year-olds, despite warnings of a possible demographic collapse.

Kiev’s military appears to have been the driving force behind removing the demobilization provision. A letter from Syrsky to Defense Minister Rustem Umerov urged him to leave the matter to a future bill, as the military could ill-afford losing tens of thousands of fighters come February 2025, according to the Guardian.

On Friday, Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Dmitry Lazutkin confirmed that demobilization was excluded at Syrsky’s request and endorsed his judgment because he “understands the operational situation” and “the threats and risks facing the state”, the New York Times reported.

Lazutkin has previously admitted that the troops fighting since 2022 “are getting tired and exhausted”, but said that now was not the time for “hasty” decisions. The government will draft a separate bill on rotation and demobilization, he added, but this could take up to eight months.

If and when Zelensky signs the bill into law, it will force all men aged 18-60, including Ukrainian nationals residing outside the country, to register for conscription. Summons for mobilization would become automated and the punishments for defying them more severe, while local governments would be required to help with the process.

Kiev has not made public how many troops it intends to raise through the new measures. The Washington Post noted that the “unpopular” mobilization of hundreds of thousands “risks stoking panic”.

The number of skeptics in Germany continues to grow, according to the survey results from Politbarometer. While in August, 70% of respondents said they did not see Kiev winning, currently as many as 82% of those surveyed do not believe it can prevail.

Less than half of Germans want their government to send more military aid to Ukraine, the poll showed. According to the data, 42% of respondents are in favor of stronger support, while 31% want it to remain at the same level and 22% believe that it should be reduced.

Germans are increasingly concerned about the possibility of a bigger conflict breaking out on the European continent that would require direct involvement of the nation’s armed forces, Politbarometer found. As many as 53% of respondents called such a prospect either a “serious” or “very serious” concern.

Most people in Germany also believe that the military would not be up to the task of fighting a full scale war. Almost 80% of respondents said that the German armed forces, or Bundeswehr, would be poorly positioned in the event of conflict, even as part of NATO. Only 13% said otherwise.

The Politbarometer survey was conducted by the Mannheim Research Group on behalf of ZDF between April 9 and April 11 and involved 1,254 eligible voters across Germany.

The data comes a month and a half after another poll showed that only 10% of people across 12 EU countries believed that Ukraine could triumph over Russia on the battlefield. Twice as many respondents (20%) expected Moscow to emerge victorious and 37% of those questioned believed that the conflict would end with some form of compromise, the results published by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) in late February showed.