Don't fight in Ukraine - military boss tells Britons

Britons should not head to Ukraine to fight and should instead help however they can from the UK, the head of the armed forces has said.

Speaking to the BBC, Adm Sir Tony Radakin rejected Ukraine's call for a no-fly zone saying it would not help tactically and might escalate fighting.

He urged the West to have confidence that they were doing the "right thing".

The invasion was not going well, Russia was becoming less powerful and it cannot continue, he said.

On Britons wanting to join the fight, Adm Radakin said that was not something to rush into in terms of the sound of gunfire.

Asked whether Foreign Secretary Liz Truss had been right to say she would support any Briton who wanted to fight, he said: "We can all understand that sentiment, and that sentiment needs to be channelled into support for Ukraine."

In his interview with the BBC's Sunday Morning show, the defence chief painted a picture of Russian forces suffering from heavy losses and low morale, with kit failings and a massive military convoy stalled outside the capital, Kyiv.

The Kremlin has lost more troops in a week than the UK did in 20 years in Afghanistan, he said, and some "lead elements of Russian forces" have been decimated.

He described stories of soldiers whose morale had been so knocked they had abandoned the convoy destined for Kyiv to camp in the forest.

But Adm Radakin insisted such an intervention would not help.

"The advice that we, as senior military professionals are giving our politicians, is to avoid doing things that are tactically ineffective and definitely to avoid doing things that tactically might lead to miscalculation or escalation."

He said most of the shelling and destruction was coming from artillery, not Russian aircraft, and to police a no-fly zone could mean taking out Russian defence systems and shooting down Russian aircraft - leading to an escalation, he added.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that any such move to implement a no-fly zone would be seen "as participation in an armed conflict by that country".

Adm Radakin also played down Mr Putin's nuclear threats.

The West has to maintain calmness and responsibility and not react rashly to the latest "bizarre or ridiculous comment" from Mr Putin, he said.

"We are prepared, we are professional armed forces, we will approach this conflict with that level of professionalism and responsibility that you would expect.

"We will also be incredibly confident in our ability to face down President Putin," he added.

Adm Radakin was also asked whether the West would know beforehand whether Mr Putin would use nuclear weapons.

He said he did not want to go into detail but there had been a "remarkable" level of intelligence in the months leading up to the invasion.

"There are some more discreet elements in terms of warning signs if this was going to start to chart a path towards nuclear escalation," he said.