Mr Putin has accused the West of ignoring Russia's demands to prevent Ukraine from joining the western Nato military alliance and offer Moscow security guarantees. Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg criticised Russia's "reckless" attack on Ukraine and said despite weeks of tireless international diplomacy, Russia had chosen "the path of aggression". The latest move by Russia has drawn international condemnation, with US President Joe Biden denouncing Russia's military action as an "unprovoked and unjustified attack", declaring "the world will hold Russia accountable". At least seven people are known to have been killed by Russian shelling, including civilians. A Ukrainian presidential adviser said that more than 40 soldiers had died and dozens more were wounded, but this has not been independently confirmed. https://euronewstop.co.uk/why-no-un-peacekeepers-in-ukraine.html has said that the UK is planning to send more weapons and non-lethal kit such as helmets to Ukraine.
- Moscow’s ambassador to London previously warned that the UK would be hit with “immediate retaliation” if it tried to sanction Russia.
- Military kit also needs boots on the ground to operate it – hence Sir Patrick’s call for a “Citizen Army” to boost the regular Armed Forces.
- Recruitment remained a challenge, he said, although applications to join were “the highest in six years”.
- He highlighted the threat from Russia and pointed to steps being taken by other European nations to put their populations on a "war footing".
A prominent war expert says the US is on the verge of lessening its support for, or even withdrawing from, NATO - with potentially catastrophic consequences for Europe. One of the bill's leading signatories - former Conservative Party leader and MP Iain Duncan Smith - intends to urge ministers to accept the changes. The government says the Economic Crime Bill will help investigators "prevent foreign owners from laundering their money in UK property" and ensure oligarchs "can't hide behind opaque shell companies and foundations". Defending the government's response, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab rejected suggestions the UK had been slow in imposing sanctions against Russia. Lord Pannick told the BBC he represented Russian businessman Arkady Rotenberg in 2014 and 2015 in relation to sanctions imposed by the EU. The alternative, Lord Pannick said, was that "the government can do whatever it likes", which would be "contrary to the rule of law".
Why has Russia invaded?
"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." “This represents a continuation of Russia’s minor incremental gains whilst Ukraine focuses on active defence,” the report reads. “As the main supply route remains intact, and Ukrainian forces make local counter-attacks, Avdiivka is likely to remain in Ukrainian control over the coming weeks,” the report said. The Russian defence ministry said that missiles fired from across the border brought down the transport plane, but Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said that Kyiv had no verifiable information about who was on the plane. Ukrainian officials say Russia has provided no credible evidence to back its claims that their own forces shot down a military transport plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war who were to be swapped for Russian POWs. Russian air defences have prevented a drone attack on an oil refinery in the city of Yaroslavl, northeast of Moscow, the regional governor has said.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said the UK will launch retaliatory cyber attacks on Russia if it targets the country’s computer networks, telling the House of Commons that “offensive cyber capability” is being developed. But the efforts to disrupt Ukrainian infrastructure have prompted “concerns that the same sort of attack could now be attempted in the UK”, the Daily Mail said. Here’s how the war will affect the UK, from potential military action to sanctions and gas prices. Russia might use the crisis to launch cyber and other hybrid attacks on Nato countries.
Two years on from Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and this war benefits no one: UK statement at the UN Security Council
A year ago, in an attempt to ensure politicians plugged the gap with future spending, he warned that gifts of weapons to Ukraine would “leave us temporarily weaker”. During the speech in London, the army chief said the UK needed to broadly follow Stockholm’s example and take “preparatory steps to enable placing our societies on a war footing”. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) also distanced itself from the speech, which was released by the British army on behalf of the senior general, who is due to leave in the summer, having missed out on becoming head of the armed forces three years ago. Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson said the prime minister did not agree with comments made by Gen Sir Patrick Sanders in a speech on Wednesday, and was forced to insist there would be no return to national service, which was abolished in 1960. The diminishing prospects for a deal leave congressional leaders with no clear way to approve a White House request for $110bn in emergency funding for Ukraine, Israel, immigration enforcement and national security needs. Local authorities in Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, said the crash killed all 74 people on board, including six crew members and three Russian servicemen.
- They said Moscow did not ask for any specific stretch of airspace to be kept safe for a certain length of time, as it has for past prisoner exchanges.
- Depending on how long the fighting continues “the food chain could also be hit if Russian chemical supplies for fertiliser are affected” as “disruption could harm the forthcoming harvest in Britain”, the paper added.
- I offer my condolences and that of the UK to all Ukrainians for the lives lost due to these barbaric airstrikes.
"Because this act of wanton and reckless aggression is an attack not just on Ukraine, it's an attack on democracy and freedom in eastern Europe and around the world." The UK "cannot and will not just look away" at Russia's "hideous and barbaric" attack on Ukraine, Boris Johnson has said. But the alliance has also made clear that it believes that Ukraine has a right to make its own decisions as a sovereign nation, and it is not willing to give Russia a veto on Ukraine's future. He said the security situation in Europe was without precedent since the fall of the Iron Curtain. But the official noted there had been a combination of sharp bellicose rhetoric from Moscow, accusations of being provoked by Ukraine and Nato, a lack of transparency, and a worrying track record, including the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The war that erupted in eastern Ukraine in 2014 has already left 14,000 dead and an estimated 1.4 million displaced.
Government activity
European countries have largely outsourced much of their military capacity and thinking on strategy and security to the States through NATO. Analysis by BBC Reality Check showed 15 individuals were sanctioned last week, including Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Belarusian defence chiefs and President Putin himself. In one of his best-known cases, he led legal action which forced the government to seek Parliament's approval before starting the Brexit process. Lord Pannick put forward a number of amendments at the report stage of the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018, most of which were backed by the government at the time.
- NATO and the Ministry of Defence will be studying the battlefields of Ukraine closely to work out what it would mean if British forces ever became involved in a fight with the Russians.
- The government's independent advisory Climate Change Committee recently warned that any new North Sea projects will take an average of 28 years to start producing oil and gas.
- Meanwhile, the US is struggling to pass a $100 billion military aid package for Ukraine amid Republican opposition, with defence sources warning that if Donald Trump wins the presidential race, it will hand Russia victory.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the UK should brace itself for the "economic pain" the country will experience by imposing sanctions against Russia. Ukrainian protesters gathered outside Downing Street on Thursday afternoon to call for more action from the UK and the international community. Ukraine has imposed martial law across the country, meaning the military has taken control temporarily, and traffic jams have built up as people attempt to flee Kyiv. The PM said President Vladimir Putin had launched a "vast invasion by land, by sea and by air" without provocation.
Nearly 60 people have been killed nationwide, with Kharkiv in the northeast, Zaporizhzhia in the south, Odesa on the southern coast and even Lviv in the far west all suffering strikes. On Tuesday night President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had launched 500 missiles and drones against Ukraine in just five days. The attack on the Slavneft-YANOS refinery caused no fire or casualties, governor Mikhail Yevrayev said.
- He said he "strongly suspected" that the government had not "given sufficient resources" to those who were responsible for identifying sanctions targets.
- A 13-year-old girl died today from injuries sustained in the Russian shelling of her village in the Kharkiv oblast earlier this month, said Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional state administration.
- The UK gets just 5-6% of its gas imports from Russia, according to analysis of government data by think tank ECIU, so supplies are not likely to be so directly affected.
- Russian president Vladimir Putin wants to assert his power over the neighbouring country of Ukraine because he believes they should both be under the same sphere of influence, as they were both part of the Soviet Union in the 20th Century.
- Western intelligence estimates that Russia already has up to 100,000 troops positioned near to the border with Ukraine, along with tanks and artillery.
They engaged Ukrainian troops in 98 combat engagements, and carried out four air strikes and 78 shellings with reactive bullets. Denmark has allocated 91m Danish kroner (over €12m) for the cyber defence of Ukraine within the IT coalition. But the House speaker, Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said the legislation would be “dead on arrival in the House” in its current form, according to a letter to Republican lawmakers. Downing Street has ruled out any move towards conscription, saying the army service will remain voluntary. The Biden administration has announced the approval of a $23bn deal to sell F-16 warplanes to Turkey, after Ankara ratified Sweden’s Nato membership, the state department said. A source told BBC political correspondent Nick Eardley the meeting was "tempestuous" and ended early after Ms Truss said the ambassador should be "ashamed" of Russia's behaviour in Ukraine, adding that the Kremlin had lied repeatedly.
Ukraine is known as the “breadbasket of Europe” and along with Russia makes up 29% of global wheat exports, 19% of corn and 80% of sunflower oil. That means “the price of items such as bread, baked goods and beer could rise”, The Times warned. “Russia is Europe’s largest supplier of natural gas,” the i news site said, “providing around 35% of the gas used across the continent.” But “the UK’s reliance on Russian gas is far less significant, at just 3%”. Last week, after President Putin ordered the first Russian troops into Ukraine, the Prime Minister confirmed the UK would sanction three wealthy allies of Vladimir Putin and five Russian banks. The Prime Minister called Russia’s attack a “massive invasion”, and accused President Putin of having “attacked a friendly country without any provocation and without any credible excuses”.