Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the UK should brace itself for the "economic pain" the country will experience by imposing sanctions against Russia. Russian military vehicles are reported to have breached Ukraine's border in a number of places, in the north, south and east, including from Belarus. The PM said President Vladimir Putin had launched a "vast invasion by land, by sea and by air" without provocation. The country is one of the world’s largest grain suppliers, meaning conflict is likely to cause supply problems, especially in Europe.
- He said all major Russian banks will face a full UK asset freeze, which means they will not be able to access accounts, money or property in the UK.
- But the US has said the issue at stake is Russian aggression, not Nato expansion.
- Downing Street said the leaders agreed that if a further Russian incursion took place, "allies must enact swift retributive responses including an unprecedented package of sanctions".
- Downing Street has ruled out any move towards conscription, saying the army service will remain voluntary.
Nato has said it will listen to Russia’s concerns about wanting Ukraine not to join the organisation but its core values, of allowing each nation to choose its own path and defending all allies, will not be compromised. Nato is unwilling to send troops into Ukraine itself although the UK has supplied around 2,000 anti-tank missiles to the country. Around 350 Royal Marines from 45 Commando were sent to Poland this week – taking the total numbers of military personnel there up to 500 – as the two countries continue to work together to try and de-escalate the tensions around Ukraine. The Russian president said his goal was the “demilitarisation” of Ukraine, warning that if the West were to interfere they would endure “consequences they had never seen”.
Opposition to Russia's demands
Adm Rob Bauer, who heads the alliance's military committee, said the public needed to change their mindset for an era "when anything can happen at any time". Local authorities in Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, said the crash killed all 74 people on board, including six crew members and three Russian servicemen. https://euronewstop.co.uk/why-is-europe-not-helping-ukraine.html in the Belgorod region posted videos that showed a plane falling from the sky in a snowy, rural area and a huge ball of fire erupting where it allegedly hit the ground. While climate change is often deemed a "threat multiplier", it is clear from the last week "that fossil fuels are a threat multiplier too", she said. "We live in an unstable world. If rich counties fail to support vulnerable countries in tackling climate impacts and in their clean energy transition, it will only fuel a spiral of instability." Russia's defence ministry has denied attacking Ukrainian cities - saying it was targeting military infrastructure, air defence and air forces with "high-precision weapons".
- Russia wants Nato to make a legally binding promise that Ukraine will never become a member.
- The Covid lockdown, which saw fights breaking out in queues at supermarkets and garages, was a glimpse of how trouble can spark during times of nationwide panic.
- But his remark lives on as a challenge to all policymakers thinking about whether to engage diplomatically - and even militarily - in a potential conflict between two foreign countries.
President Putin recognises the independence of the two Russian-backed separatists areas in eastern Ukraine and says troops will be sent to support them. Nato says its forces are on standby and more ships and fighter jets are being sent to the region. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says Nato will “continue to take all necessary measures to protect and defend all allies”. Some in Kyiv are hunkering down in the city's metro stations and air raid shelters, while others are trying to escape.
Military cooperation and NATO
Britain has also allowed ammunition supplies to dwindle to “dangerously low levels,” according to a Parliamentary Defence Committee report. Gen Sir Richard Barrons, the former head of the British Joint Forces Command, told the committee that he doubted there were “sufficient munitions to sustain a high-intensity conflict for more than about a week”. Right now, such scenarios tend to exercise only the minds of Ministry of Defence war-gamers and military thriller writers.
- Although the government has been clear that Britain will not become involved directly in military conflict in Ukraine, the wider ramifications of the invasion will have a profound effect on the UK.
- Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the UK should brace itself for the "economic pain" the country will experience by imposing sanctions against Russia.
- If Ukraine was part of Nato, the military alliance which is made up of 30 member states, including the US and UK, every Nato nation would have to launch an armed attack against Russia.
- Russia denies it is preparing for an invasion and accuses Nato of upping its activity in the region.
- But Air Vice Marshal Bell, who previously headed a strategic combat review for the RAF, says the reasons for this are not clear.
BBC correspondents heard loud bangs in the capital Kyiv, as well as Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. He urged Ukrainian soldiers in the combat zone to lay down their weapons and go home, but said clashes were inevitable and "only a question of time". Russia did not want to occupy Ukraine, he said, but would demilitarise and "de-Nazify" the country. Considering they have been accused of using nuclear and chemical agents in the UK, it might have been assumed the Russians wouldn't follow international rules on the battlefield, but the Ukraine conflict appears to have confirmed it. Consequently, Air Vice Marshal Bell says planners need to take political and ethical landscape in which the Kremlin operates into consideration if it ever gets into a fight.
Some Republicans have set a deal on border security as a condition for further Ukraine aid. Compared to other European countries, the UK economy is less energy intensive. This is partly due to the relatively large share of services in UK output and relatively large shares of energy-intensive manufacturing in some other countries (Chart C).
- The UK is not protected from rising prices purely because it relies less on Russian gas.
- As Gen Sir Patrick Sanders stated several times in his speech on Wednesday, "Ukraine really matters".
- “Preparations for the repatriation had been underway for a long time,” Ukraine’s coordination headquarters for the treatment of prisoners of war said in a statement.
- Cabinet tensions over defence spending have emerged as Penny Mordaunt, the former secretary of state, warned Mr Shapps earlier this week that Britain’s national interests were at risk unless the Royal Navy kept pace with hostile nations.