‘Whiff of Munich’ over Western response to Ukraine crisis, says defence secretary Ben Wallace

France says Putin has given no indication of a plan to invade Ukraine

Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, has likened some Western diplomatic efforts to ease the Ukraine crisis to appeasement, saying there is a “whiff of Munich in the air”.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, he said a Russian invasion of Ukraine is now “highly likely” and that the size of its military presence on the border was such that Moscow could “launch an offensive at any time”.

“The worrying thing is that, despite the massive amount of increased diplomacy, that military build-up has continued,” he said. “It has not paused, it has continued.”

He added that Putin could back down “but there is a whiff of Munich in the air from some in the West.”

He did not refer to any country by name, but his comments came as officials in the French presidency said Vladimir Putin had given no indication he was planning to invade Ukraine during a phone call on Saturday with Emmanuel Macron.

"We see no indication in what President Putin says that he is going to go on the offensive," the French official told reporters.

Macron visited Moscow during the week, when the pair discussed ways to move forward on the implementation of the Minsk Agreements on achieving peace in eastern Ukraine.

Scholz is due to visit Kiev on Monday followed by Moscow on Tuesday, and the Elysee said the French and German positions were "perfectly aligned".

The Ministry of Defence has ruled out an evacuation of Kiev similar to the one carried out in Afghanistan last August after the fall of Kabul.

Mr Wallace said: “Russia has a formidable armed forces that would have an air defence and [anti-aircraft] capability. The Taliban had lots of things but it didn’t have that.”

Last week Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, announced plans for the “toughest sanctions regime against Russia” as she warned that any further invasion would incur “severe costs”. She will be in eastern European capitals over the next month spearheading the diplomatic campaign. Her message will be that a Russian invasion would backfire on the Kremlin and result in a drawn-out conflict.

Reuters contributed to this report.