LONDON (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the prospect of readying a nuclear deterrent in order to distract from a lack of progress in the invasion of Ukraine, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said on Monday.

       "He's made this comment. We keep it under review," Wallace told Sky News after Putin said he was putting Russia's nuclear deterrent on high alert.

       "But you know, what we shouldn't really forget is that this is a big attempt to distract away from his troubles in Ukraine by just deploying into the sort of media space these phrases."

       (Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)