British troops can and will lead a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine despite cuts to the Armed Forces, senior military chiefs have insisted.

Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron are in talks to put British and French soldiers in Ukraine as peacekeeping forces in the event of a deal to stop the war.

A senior Army source said: “If this were to gain traction, the UK is in a strong position to lead and I think we’d want to.”

He stressed that while such a move was a “consideration”, no “deep military planning” had yet taken place on the subject, which was currently a “political” position.

“That can follow if and when a decision is made,” he said.

It comes as Sir Keir Starmer met with Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, on Thursday in what marked his first visit to Kyiv since becoming Prime Minister in July last year.