ANTI-WAR campaigners warned today that Prime Minister Liz Truss’s pledge of billions of pounds to Ukraine can only serve to “extend the brutal conflict” as the risk of nuclear war rises.

Stop The War (StW) warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a new mobilisation in Ukraine and his claim that Moscow is prepared to use “various means of destruction” marks an “alarming escalation” of the war.

It warned that risk of a nuclear power confrontation is now higher than “at any time for generations.”

StW said the current Western strategy of backing Ukraine by pumping weapons into the country and economically isolating Russia is inflaming the war and called on the British government to encourage peace talks, rather than obstructing them.

Convener Lindsey German said: “The war in Ukraine is reaching boiling point and it is the urgent duty of the British government to encourage negotiations.

“Instead, Liz Truss continues to fan the flames of the war by promising billions more in weaponry.

“This will only lead to more misery for Ukrainians and a danger of war spreading elsewhere.”

StW vice chairman Chris Nineham added that ordinary people in Ukraine, Russia and the wider region will suffer worst in the war.

He said: “This war is blighting the lives of millions around the globe.

“It is a major contributory factor to the inflationary crisis we are all facing.

“Now once again politicians and commentators are nonchalantly discussing in the media the possibilities it raises of nuclear conflagration.

“It is up to all of us to do everything to try and end this madness and to challenge the idea that there can be any winners in this war.”