Sky correspondent Alistair Bunkall, a defence specialist, answered your questions on the Ukraine crisis in a live online Q&A.
Tuesday 15 February 2022 15:38, UK
Thanks for following along as Sky correspondent Alistair Bunkall answered your questions on the developing situation between Ukraine and Russia.
If you're joining late, you can read all his expertise below.
We (the UK) is in Europe still, just not the EU. This is an issue for all. I think the RoI has offered to take Ukrainian refugees if necessary, so different countries are doing different things.
And the UK is a leading member of NATO, an alliance set up principally for the defence of Europe.
Why is the West not amassing more troops in the eastern states to match the Russian military build-up? If Putin is ready to engineer a pretext for Ukraine he would definitely be capable to do that to a former Warsaw pact NATO state?
NATO won't send troops in because Ukraine isn't a NATO member.
More troops have been sent to eastern European states, but I think NATO is being careful not to antagonise Putin at this delicate stage.
One assumes it would be a different matter were Putin threatening Latvia, Lithuania or Poland, for example.
How safe is Britain from Russian missiles and Russian aircraft , if a full blown war with Russia was to happen in the near future?
I think at this stage there is no threat of a Russia/Ukrainian conflict spreading further into Europe.
That being said, war can quickly unravel, which is why the security of Europe is the security of Britain too.
Does China not have a substantial influence on Russia to pressure them into refraining from war? Surely China's global interests will be substantially affected by Russian aggression?
I see the opposite.
After the ignoble retreat from Afghanistan, if Russia were to invade Ukraine with little consequence then China would be emboldened, perhaps even to challenge Taiwan.
Putin and Xi met recently and the working theory is that the Chinese premiere gave his blessing.
What would a Russian invasion mean for the world? Do I need to be worried about an all-out war?
I don't think that is going to happen.
Does the recent integrated defence review mean that the UK military, and in particular the British Army, will be unable to provide credible options to counter Russian aggression in Europe?
Not necessarily. The British armed forces have a lot of very capable equipment that can deter and counter Russian threats. The UK is a nuclear nation, let's not forget.
But events in Ukraine certainly expose many years of underfunding and deep cuts in the British military.
Was an invasion ever likely? It looked to me like it was all being stoked by politicians from the West who wanted to turn attention from their own domestic problems. Even Ukraine asked the West to stop escalating things.
Despite encouraging signs of diplomatic openings and the withdrawal of a small number of Russian troops today, I think conflict still is a very real possibility. Until Russian troops return to bases in large numbers, we won't know for sure.
The Ukrainian government shares the West's concerns but has previously been careful not to panic its people. Which is understandable.
We've got Alistair for a good while yet, but as he types away answering more of your questions, why not have a watch of this clip of him explaining what an invasion could look like...
Beck: