London, (Europe Brief News), Britain decided to supply Ukraine with short-range anti-tank missiles for self-defence, the UK defence secretary said.
British troops would also be sent to Ukraine to provide training, Ben Wallace added.
The move came after Russia sent about 100,000 troops on Ukraine’s border.
Ben Wallace said there was “legitimate and real cause for concern” the Russian troops could carry out an invasion.
Dozens of British troops have been in Ukraine since 2015 to help train their armed forces, and the UK has also made a commitment to help rebuild Ukraine’s navy following Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014.
But Wallace said the UK would be providing extra help with security in the light of Russia’s “increasingly threatening behaviour”.
Russia and Ukraine have earlier reached a new agreement to restore a 2020 ceasefire deal in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak hailed the deal, saying the coming holidays “should be peaceful”.
The deal was brokered by Europe’s OSCE security organisation as a step towards de-escalation.
The agreement coincides with heightened tensions in the region where effort have been made to defuse tensions over Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia.
The build-up has further prompted concern in the West, with the US threatening Putin with sanctions if Ukraine comes under attack.
Russia, however, denies it is planning to invade the country and says the troops are there for exercises. It says it can move its troops freely on its own soil.
The war in eastern Ukraine began in 2014, and it is an ongoing conflict between the
Ukrainian army and Russian-backed separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Fourteen thousand were injured, and more than 2 million Ukrainians were displaced either in other parts of the country or abroad due to the seven-year war.
