Foreign Secretary would not deploy British forces to help defend Ukraine

British Foreign Secretary and Conservative leadership candidate Liz Truss has said she would not deploy British forces to help defend Ukraine.

During their latest leadership debate, Ms Truss and former chancellor Rishi Sunak were pushed to clarify whether they would deploy the Royal Navy to the Black Sea to protect the vital grain supplies coming out of Ukraine.

"I am not prepared for the United Kingdom to become directly involved in the conflict," Ms Truss said.

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She added: "We have done as much as we can: we were the first European country to send weapons to Ukraine, we've put the toughest possible sanctions on Russia, we're actually helping with areas about maritime insurance, in helping getting that grain out of Odesa, and an agreement has been reached.

"But Ukraine is not a NATO country, and I think it would be wrong to directly deploy our troops and our resources."

When asked whether he would deploy the Royal Navy to Ukraine, Mr Sunak said: "I think actually we should take a step back and recognise that we have put together one of the strongest set of economic sanctions that the world has ever seen and that has really hampered Putin's war effort.

"We also made sure that we supported Ukraine financially with the arms and weapons they needed to defend themselves, and actually that's something that Liz and I worked together on."