However, don’t expect to see Jeremy Corbyn being carted off straight away. In extremis, a wartime government could inter anyone deemed a threat to public order or the war effort. The conflict in Ukraine offers a glimpse of how Britain might prepare for self-defence.
- Further east in Kramatorsk, in the eastern Donetsk region, the BBC's Eastern European Correspondent Sarah Rainsford said people did not expect such a full-on assault.
- On 24 January Nato announced it was putting forces on standby and sending additional ships and fighter jets to Nato deployments in eastern Europe, “reinforcing Allied deterrence and defence”.
- In 1994, the UK - along with the US - signed a memorandum at an international conference in Budapest promising "to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine".
- The danger, however, with sanctions is they push Moscow further away from the West and towards the East, meaning Mr Putin may develop yet closer relations with Beijing.
If we took casualties at the rate the Ukrainians are taking them, the NHS would immediately be overwhelmed, and for years we’ve missed recruitment targets for the Armed Forces. But if Ukraine’s experience is anything to go by, the threat posed by a common enemy could have a unifying effect. Kyiv’s politicians used to be notoriously fractious – not least because of divisions between the pro and anti-Russian camps.
Putin accuses Nato of ignoring Russia’s concerns as Ukraine crisis simmers
Defence ministry officials conspired with employees from a Ukrainian arms firm to embezzle almost $40m earmarked to buy 100,000 mortar shells, Ukraine’s security service said. Five people have been charged, with one person detained trying to cross the Ukrainian border. Corruption has been a major roadblock in Kyiv’s bid to joint the European Union and Nato, with officials from both blocs demanding widespread anti-graft reforms before Kyiv can join them. Russia launched drone and missile attacks targeting civilian and critical infrastructure across wide areas of Ukraine, Kyiv’s air force said on Sunday. Preliminary information did not show any casualties in the attacks, but Russia and Ukraine have increased their air attacks on each other’s territory in recent months, targeting critical military, energy and transport infrastructure.
Emergency crews were at the site, Malashko said, but gave no details of damage or casualties. Reuters reports it said preliminary information did not show any casualties in the attacks. Only aircraft deployed to protect energy facilities, or those carrying top Russian or foreign officials, will be allowed to fly with special permission in the designated zones, according to the Vedomosti daily newspaper. A spate of Ukraine-linked attacks on Russia's oil infrastructure have reportedly led Moscow's energy ministry to propose restricting flights over energy facilities.
Simple guide to Ukraine crisis in maps
The invasion by land, air and sea began after a pre-dawn TV address where Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that Ukraine's military lay down its arms. Unprecedented, supposedly game-changing US and EU sanctions will follow an invasion. They include potentially crippling curbs on Russian banks, corporations, exports, loans and technology transfers, diplomatic isolation and the targeting of Putin’s personal wealth and that of his oligarch cronies. The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany will be frozen indefinitely.
But it boosts the strength of the professional armed forces, which is often relatively small. A number of European countries also rehearse for civil emergencies - with exercises that involve ordinary citizens as well as the military. It has sent military equipment, weapons as well as ammunition as well as anti-tank drones to Ukraine, however, Germany’s has refused to send “lethal weapons” to Ukraine. While the official said it was hard to say these were all strategically related, it showed that there was an issue on Eastern Europe's eastern flank. But the official said Russia could also initiate actions against Nato members such as cyber and hybrid warfare, and even physical attacks.
Elsewhere on the BBC
Thursday's invasion followed weeks of escalating tensions, as Russia massed troops along Ukraine's borders. Basic food supplies in African and Asian countries that depend on Ukraine, the world’s fifth-largest wheat exporter in 2020, will be hit. Additional, defensive Nato deployments on Russia’s borders could increase the risk of Europe-wide conflagration. Analysts say Russia could opt for a more limited, less risky offensive to grab extra territory in eastern Ukraine and the Donbas, while asserting the independence of pro-Moscow breakaway republics there, as in Georgia in 2008. It may also try to seize the major ports of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov and Odessa on the Black Sea, and create a “land bridge” to Crimea. The MoD said Wallace met his Swedish counterpart, Peter Hultqvist, before travelling to Finland to hold discussions with president Sauli Niinistö, the foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, and the defence minister, Antti Kaikkonen.
This would put the "largest and most combat-effective friendly military on the European continent" at the forefront of NATO's defence, according to the thinktank. "Such an outcome would bring a battered but triumphant Russian army right up to NATO's border from the Black Sea to the Arctic Ocean." The UK’s nuclear advice for citizens is called the Protect and Survive booklet. It was first produced at the height of the Cold War in 1974 and last updated in 1980.
Hundreds of thousands may flee, presenting Europe with a huge humanitarian and refugee emergency. https://euronewstop.co.uk/what-would-happen-if-russia-launched-a-nuke-in-ukraine.html and chemical weapons atrocities, as in Syria, cannot be ruled out. A missile strike by Russia on London would not be Vladimir Putin’s primary goal should the UK and other nations be dragged into the war in Ukraine, a senior defence official has told i.
US President Joe Biden has ruled out sending troops even to shepherd American citizens out of Ukraine because he said if Russians and Americans end up fighting that would be World War III. The conflict is likely to remain confined to Ukraine and Russia in terms of actual fighting. The West's bet was that the threat of sanctions would be enough to deter Russian aggression. This is a question lots of you put forward and has been tackled by our security and defence editor Deborah Haynes here... Russia's aggression towards Ukraine has already driven the price of oil close to $100 per barrel – a level that, given the current strength of demand for oil and gas, is likely to be hit in coming days. On the face of it no one wants this conflict to spread but there is always the law of unintended consequences and mistakes and misunderstandings escalating into an expanded conflict, as has happened in wars in the past.
- A core principle of European security after World War Two was that sovereign nations have a right to make their own choices.
- Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace said these troops would be used “first and foremost” to deal with any humanitarian crisis.
- Washington has suggested that force could rise to 175,000 by the end of January.
- The former minister, currently a serving Conservative MP, pointed out that the prime minister grew up without that existential threat.
- It is called self-determination, and perhaps the most important aspect of this principle is that borders cannot be changed by invading armies.
- With Russian forces amassing at the border over recent weeks, the UK responded by sending Ukraine "self-defence" weapons.
As in Ukraine, office techies could be in demand to operate drones on the front lines and to fend off cyberattacks. Moscow first struck Ukraine's military infrastructure and border guard units. Then Ukrainian forces said Russian military vehicles had crossed the border near Kharkiv in the north, Luhansk in the east, Russian-annexed Crimea in the south and from Belarus too. Belarus's authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko said his country's military were not involved but could be if needed. Nato is also working with Ukraine to modernise its armed forces and said it will help Ukraine defend against cyber attacks as well as supply it with secure communications equipment for the military. Russia and Ukraine have increased their air attacks on each other’s territory in recent months, targeting critical military, energy and transport infrastructure.
Despite this, the UK and other allies have increased numbers of troops in NATO countries surrounding Ukraine. The decision by Vladimir Putin to launch military operations in Ukraine will intensify pressure on the PM to go further in taking action than he has so far with sanctions. Russia has sent tanks over the border into Ukraine and Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the UK and NATO allies will support Kyiv. Conscription requires young men and women to serve for a limited time in uniform. It means that some of the population will have had some military training - and can then be assigned to reserve units should war break out. Germany's Defence Minister, Boris Pistorius, recently told a German newspaper "we have to take into account that Vladimir Putin might even attack a Nato country one day".