Boris Johnson condemns Ukraine invasion as he chairs Cobra meeting
‘Putin has chosen a path of bloodshed and destruction’: Boris Johnson condemns Ukraine invasion as he prepares to chair emergency Cobra meeting this morning to discuss UK response to ‘horrific attacks’
Prime Minister will hold early COBRA meeting with defence chiefs this morning and likely to address MPsThere are calls for shattering of Russian assets with suite of super-sanctions to devastate Putin in the WestMr Johnson told Ukrainian President that the country were in thoughts of the UK ‘during this dark time’Russia has sent soldiers, tanks and artillery into Ukraine as well as firing missiles at targets across the nation
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Boris Johnson today declared that Russia has ‘chosen a path of bloodshed and destruction’ in Ukraine after launching a ‘horrific attacks’ on its neighbour.
The Prime Minister spoke to President Zelenskyy shortly after the invasion began, telling him ‘he hoped Ukraine could resist’ the attacks and the thoughts of everyone in the UK were with Ukraine ‘during this dark time’.
Mr Johnson will chair a COBRA meeting at 7.30am GMT where he is certain to agree further sanctions having promised a ‘decisive’ response amid calls for Britain to punish Putin’s oligarchs. He is expected to address the Commons later.
NATO called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ‘a grave violation of international law’ as war broke out in Europe sparking the greatest threat to security and peace since the Second World War.
In a statement on Twitter, Mr Johnson said: ‘I am appalled by the horrific events in Ukraine and I have spoken to President Zelenskyy to discuss next steps. President Putin has chosen a path of bloodshed and destruction by launching this unprovoked attack on Ukraine. The UK and our allies will respond decisively.’
It came after Russia invaded Ukraine, reportedly sending troops, tanks and artillery into five areas of the country despite the Kremlin claiming it was a ‘special military operation’ in only the eastern Donbas region. But the Government in Kiev has said it is a ‘full scale invasion’.
Addressing the nation from the Kremlin this morning, Putin said his plans “don’t include occupation of Ukrainian territory’, insisting he was only trying ‘to demilitarise Ukraine’ and ‘protect Donbas’ from the Ukrainians, adding: ‘We are not going to impose anything on anyone by force’.
And in a chilling threat to anyone in the West who may want to help the Ukrainian militarily, he said: ‘To anyone who would consider interfering from outside: If you do, you will face consequences greater than any you have faced in history. All the relevant decisions have been taken. I hope you hear me’.
Boris Johnson today declared that Putin has ‘chosen a path of bloodshed and destruction’ in Ukraine after launching a ‘horrific attacks’ on its neighbour
Smoke can be seen after an airstrike or artillery fire near the Ukraine Belarus border while tank columns entered Ukraine from Belarus this morning
Boris Johnson said he was ‘appalled’ by the ‘unprovoked attack’ on a sovereign democratic European nation
Boris Johnson spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the early hours of this morning, a Downing Street spokesperson said.
The No 10 spokesman said: ‘The Prime Minister said he was appalled by the unfolding events in Ukraine. The Ukrainian President updated the Prime Minister on the attacks taking place, and the Prime Minister said the West would not stand by as President Putin waged his campaign against the Ukrainian people.
‘The Prime Minister said he hoped Ukraine could resist and that Ukraine and its people were in the thoughts of everyone in the United Kingdom people during this dark time.’
While Foreign Secretary Liz Truss ‘strongly condemned’ what she called an ‘appalling, unprovoked attack’ on Ukraine, vowing to ‘respond to this terrible act of aggression’.
‘No one should forget this day,’ Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, added – saying that Putin is trying to ‘secure his legacy’ with an act of ‘naked aggression’. ‘It will, but not the [legacy] that he wishes.’
Mr Wallace described Russia’s actions as ‘naked aggression against a democratic country’ and said no one had been fooled by the Kremlin’s ‘false flags and fake narratives’.
‘The Russian Federation has today further violated Ukrainian Sovereignty,’ he said.
‘Despite the efforts of the international communities, Russia has chosen conflict. No one has been fooled by the Kremlin’s false flags and fake narratives.
‘This is naked aggression against a democratic country which had dared to express a different aspiration than being a supine neighbour to Russia.
‘No one should forget this day. Putin thinks this land grab is about securing his legacy – it will be, but not the one that he wishes.’
The invasion came hours after Britain’s Defence Secretary said Vladimir Putin had gone ‘full tonto’ over the Ukraine crisis yesterday, as a former Nato chief suggested the Russian president may have ‘gone crazy’.
In an extraordinary broadside, Ben Wallace mocked the Kremlin chief’s judgment and warned that his former regiment could ‘kick the backside’ of Russian troops if required.
The Defence Secretary served as an officer in the Scots Guards before his political career and was decorated for gallantry in Northern Ireland in 1992.
Tonto is Spanish for stupid and ‘going full tonto’ is popular slang for taking stupidity to a higher level.
Speaking to British troops yesterday, Mr Wallace said: ‘It is going to be a busy [British] Army. Unfortunately we’ve got a busy adversary in Putin who has gone full tonto. He is in an illogical and irrational frame of mind. The Scots Guards kicked the backside of Tsar Nicholas I in 1853 in Crimea – we can always do it again. Tsar Nicholas I made the same mistake Putin did… he had no friends, no alliances.’
Mr Wallace’s remarks were echoed last night by former Nato Secretary General Anders Rasmussen. In an interview with ITV’s Robert Peston, he said the Kremlin chief may have ‘gone crazy’ and had seemed ‘unhinged’ in recent television appearances. Mr Rasmussen said: ‘Russian behaviour right now, it’s not rational, so I wouldn’t exclude the possibility Putin has gone crazy. And we saw how he humiliated his advisers. So I don’t think we are confronted with a man who is thinking along rational lines.
‘We should hit him hard economically, much harder than we have done already. Russia should be cut off from Western money. We should also reduce our dependence on imported Russian gas and we should step up our delivery of lethal weapons to Ukraine.’
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said she condemns Russia´s `appalling, unprovoked attack´ on Ukraine, which has already caused injuries and deaths as missiles hit the country
Ms Truss has insisted ‘nothing is off the table’ if Russia attacks, which it did today
The choked roads of Kiev as people try to head west away from the capital amid fears Russia may try to take the capital
Mr Wallace made his comments in a room at the Horse Guards building in London which is dominated by a painting of the Battle of Inkerman, a major engagement during the Crimean War, which saw British troops fight alongside French soldiers to defeat Russia.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Wednesday suggested Tory donors could potentially be hit with sanctions if they have links to Mr Putin’s regime.
She said she was ruling nothing out ‘in terms of who we target’ over the Ukraine crisis, as she faced calls for her party to hand back donated cash with Russian connections reportedly worth nearly £2 million.
She added in an earlier piece for The Times that Britain will ‘use every lever at our disposal to stop (Putin) in his tracks’.
Ms Truss said: ‘Nothing is off the table.’
