Britain supports adding Ukraine to Nato and "that path is open" to them, although political realities may slow the process, defence minister Ben Wallace said on Friday on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security meetings in Singapore.

He noted that it is not possible to add members in the middle of a war and that the way forward was to continue aiding and arming Ukraine for both short- and long-term security.

"The best thing we can do to help Ukraine is now to help them defeat Russia," Wallace said in an interview. "After that is to make sure they're ready and capable and resilient."

Ukraine's membership in Nato, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, is on the agenda for the group's July summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Kyiv wanted "a clear decision" on its accession at the summit.

Hanna Shelest, director of Ukrainian Prism, a think tank specialising in foreign policy and international security, said in Singapore that Nato membership would be a political decision.