LONDON (Sputnik) — On Sunday, The Daily Telegraph quoted a British military source as saying that upcoming British drills in Jordan are "much more about us being prepared to join the US in Ukraine than it is in Syria."
"It is not an exercise about war with Russia," the spokesman told RIA Novosti.
He added that the ministry had no plans "for preparing to go to war with Russia" and the drills in Jordan are an annual event involving 1,600 soldiers and 300 military vehicles to inspect the British army's capability "to deploy and support an armored force of up to 30,000 troops anywhere in the world."
The United States and its NATO allies have been building up their combined military presence in Europe, particularly in Eastern European countries bordering Russia, using Russia's alleged interference in Ukraine's internal crisis as a pretext for the move.
Moscow has repeatedly stressed it is not a party to the Ukrainian conflict, and that military expansion toward Russia's borders increases tensions and threatens regional and international security.
