UKRAINE'S prime minister has warned the UK that there is a high chance of 'World War 3' if a long-stalled foreign aid bill is not passed.

Last year, President Volodymyr Zelensky also echoed the belief that if Russia won the conflict, it could next invade Poland, triggering World War Three.

The US Congress is set to vote on a £49n package for Ukraine this Saturday.

Speaking to the BBC in Washington DC on Wednesday, Prime Minister Shmyhal said of the US security assistance: "We need this money yesterday, not tomorrow, not today."

"If we will not protect... Ukraine will fall," he added. "So the global, the global system of security will be destroyed... and all the world will need to find... a new system of security.

"Or, there will be many conflicts, many such kinds of wars, and in the end of the day, it could lead to the Third World War."

General Sir Richard Barrons, a former commander of the UK's Joint Forces Command, recently stated he feared that Ukraine could face defeat this year unless it was given the weapons and ammunition it needed to secure its lines.

"We are seeing Russia batter away at the front line, employing a five-to-one advantage in artillery, ammunition, and a surplus of people," he said.

"Ukraine may come to feel it can't win. And when it gets to that point, why will people want to fight and die?"

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Kremlin officials have ridiculed such claims as Western scaremongering

Last month President Vladimir Putin dismissed suggestions that Russia might one day attack Eastern Europe as "complete nonsense".

President Zelensky has said 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since 2022. US officials, however, believe at least 70,000 have died and many more are injured.

A BBC investigation calculates that at least 50,000 Russian troops have been killed. Tens of thousands are believed to have been injured.