Russian and UK defence ministers to meet over Ukraine.

Few military experts believe that Kyiv’s smaller forces — although rapidly modernising — could repel an outright Russian invasion.

But British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss warned on Friday that Moscow still risks becoming embroiled in a “terrible quagmire” if it invades.

In a speech in Australia, the UK’s top diplomat issued a blunt and personal warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin that he is on the brink of making a major strategic blunder.

He “has not learned the lessons of history,” Truss told Sydney’s Lowy Institute.

“The Ukrainians will fight this, it could be a quagmire” she said.

Russia has put pressure on Ukraine since an uprising nearly a decade ago toppled a government that had resisted calls to move closer to the West.

Moscow seized the Crimean peninsula in 2014 when a pro-Russian insurgency broke out in eastern Ukraine that has since claimed more than 13,000 lives.

Ukraine’s calls to Western allies to bolster its defence capabilities have seen the United States, Britain and Baltic states agree to send Kyiv weapons, including anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

But Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Saturday slammed Germany for its refusal to supply weapons to Kyiv, urging Berlin to stop “undermining unity” and “encouraging Vladimir Putin”.

Kuleba said on Twitter that Germany’s statements “about the impossibility of supplying defence weapons to Ukraine” did not match “the current security situation”.

Ukraine’s minister stressed that “today the unity of the West in relation to Russia is more important than ever”.

Ukraine is “grateful” to Germany for the support it has already provided, but its “current statements are disappointing,” he added.

Earlier on Saturday, German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said that Berlin will send a field hospital to Ukraine, while once again rejecting Kiev’s calls for weapons.

Moscow insists it has no plans to invade Ukraine but has at the same time laid down a series of security demands — including a ban on Ukraine joining NATO — in exchange for de-escalation.