The UK should put personnel on the ground in western Ukraine to train Kyiv's troops, help Ukraine increase its air defence and propose a serious invitation for Kyiv to join Nato, according to a former Armed Forces minister.
James Heappey was on the latest episode of the Sitrep podcast – which analyses the top defence stories of the week and is available wherever you get your podcasts.
He said it was time for a radical rethink on the way the West should approach the war in Ukraine, with three ideas "right off the bat for what that next evolution could be".
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Mr Heappey's first suggestion was that the West should be looking at putting troops into western Ukraine in order to conduct a training mission.
He said it was important to make the distinction this was "not the UK or other donors, and certainly not Nato, getting involved in the war".
"But it is recognising that the war at the moment is between two volunteer/conscript second echelon armies," Mr Heappey said.
He added that Russian and Ukrainian forces from "the start of the war have, frankly, all been destroyed" and neither force was managing to gain any success as a brigade–let alone a division.
"The only way that level of formation training is really achieved… is if it's being delivered in western Ukraine," Mr Heappey said.
Despite suggesting the insertion of British troops in Ukraine now, Mr Heappey said he still doesn't think it would have been right to put troops on the ground at the beginning of Russia's invasion.
"History might judge that we could have done more to deter," he said."But having been sat in the room at the time, I was absolutely convinced that even our NLAW play was an incredibly bold one."
Mr Heappey's second suggestion was providing an extension of air defence in western Ukraine, adding that this would be tied in with his first suggestion.
"Clearly there's a massive difficulty in that insomuch as are we going to agree that Western Nato member donors would shoot down a Russian aircraft, for example, were it flying in western Ukraine?" he said.
"But I think that that is the sort of thing that we should also now be thinking about."
Finally, Mr Heappey suggested that at July's Nato summit in Washington, the alliance "should be challenging ourselves far more than I think we really are to make some sort of invitation to Ukraine".
"We know that the US and German administrations are incredibly wary of such an offer," he said.
"But if the facts on the ground are really starting to change, nothing would move the dial more than that sort of offer being made to [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky in Washington."
Sitrep's resident expert Professor Michael Clarke said the ideas put forward by Mr Heappey were "very big and important".
"Nato has established this sort of red line that we will not fight Russia directly, but inevitably… if we're serious about making sure that Ukraine survives this unprovoked invasion, then Nato has got to be prepared to move up to that line and at least challenge the Russians, whether they are prepared to cross it," he said.
"We all assume that if we move too close to it, the Russians will cross the line, but we don't actually challenge them.
"They actually set the agenda and we react to that agenda and more politicians… of a more enlightened view are saying we've got to put the onus on the Russians.
"Let's see if they have got the the reckless courage to cross these lines because we're prepared to be quite strong about that.
"And I think the idea of having Western forces… perform backup duties for Ukraine and giving them some element of security in their own air defence, certainly in some parts of the country, is probably the area that we're moving towards."
Russia has been carrying out drills simulating the launch of tactical nuclear weapons in occupied Ukrainian territory.
But Prof Clarke said Russia publicises these drills just "to frighten us".
"There is no evidence from the beginning of this conflict 'til today that the Russians have lifted a finger operationally to move towards the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons," he said.
"Nothing has happened in reality which makes tactical nuclear use any more likely now than it was the week before this war started.
"But the Russians talk about it all the time because they know that in certain parts of Europe it frightens people."
Mr Heappey added that the vodka consumption of Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, was "directly proportionate to nuclear sabre rattling".
"I think, as I say, we must not be gung ho, must not be complacent, must always consider the risks," he said.
"But neither can we let Medvedev and a bottle of vodka deter us from doing the right thing to help the Ukrainians."
The former Armed Forces minister also outlined his opinion that Ukraine could use British and other Western weaponry against Russia on Russian territory.
He said Nato allies who do not approve of Ukrainians using their weapons to strike Russian targets were "tying one Ukrainian arm behind their back".
"If you won't let them use those capable weapon systems to their full capability, Russia will always simply hide in Russia with its key enablers if they know that that is a limit that we've imposed," he said.
You can listen to Sitrep wherever you get your podcasts, including on theForces News YouTubechannel.
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