General Waldemar Skrzypczak, also a former junior defense minister, said the British prime minister’s remarks could threaten the safety of troops involved in the conflict now in its third month and showing no signs of retreating. Mr Skrzypczak said Johnson had revealed “a military secret” when he gave details of Ukraine’s training plan during a trip to India last week. Waldemar Skrzypczak accuses Boris Johnson of revealing military secrets (Creative Commons) “Military training is a matter for the army, in such a situation it is secret. “Let a man hold back and think before he says such things,” Skrzypczak told the Polish tabloid Fakt, which described the former general as irritated. “The prime minister may not know it, but with such statements he endangers the success of the entire military operation, as well as the safety of the soldiers,” he said. “Such statements are tempting to evil.” Mr Skrzypczak said he was concerned about how many details he was willing to give to Mr Johnson. “It is difficult to imagine that when we were on missions abroad, one of the politicians would talk about our plans or our training on television.” Mr Johnson announced last week during a visit to India that for the first time, Ukrainian front-line troops were being trained to use military equipment on British soil as well as in Poland. The location of the mission and the exact number of people involved – considered a total of “about a dozen” – are kept strictly secret for security reasons, but Mr Johnson said the troops were being trained to use air defense and armored vehicles. The United Kingdom has sent Starstreak anti-aircraft missile systems, including weapons, to Ukraine. (PA) Mr Johnson told reporters: “I can say that we are currently training Ukrainians in Poland in the use of air defense and in fact in the United Kingdom in the use of armored vehicles.” The Stormer system, designed to launch the UK-built Starstreak high-speed air defense missile, was sent to Ukraine as part of the UK military assistance package. Tensions between Russia and the West continue to escalate as the Kremlin expresses its frustration with NATO over arms supplies to Ukraine. This map shows the extent of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (Press Association Pictures) Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia was “effectively” at war with NATO over its military supplies to Kyiv and warned that the risk of a nuclear war was “significant”. Russian President Vladimir Putin went further, warning the West of Russia’s “lightning” retaliation against anyone interfering in its “special operation” in Ukraine. The Russian president said: “If anyone intends to intervene in the current events [in Ukraine] from abroad and creates unacceptable strategic threats for us, then they should know that our response to these blows will be fast, lightning fast “.
