Boris vows to unveil ‘first barrage’ of sanctions against Russia TODAY

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Germany today effectively pulled the plug on the NordStream 2 gas pipeline while Boris Johnson vowed to hit Russia with a ‘first barrage’ of sanctions as Vladimir Putin faced a backlash over his actions in Ukraine. 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced this morning that he is taking steps to halt the process of certifying the pipeline from Russia. 

It represents a major escalation as the West begins to take punitive action against Moscow after Mr Putin last night controversially formally recognised separatist areas in eastern Ukraine.

The natural gas pipeline has long been opposed by the US and some European nations who argued it would increase Europe’s reliance on Russian energy. 

Mr Scholz said his government had decided to ‘reassess’ the certification of the pipeline, which is yet to begin operating, and told reporters in Berlin that process ‘will certainly take time’. He stressed the decision had been made in direct response to the worsening Ukraine crisis.

The NordStream 2 announcement came as Mr Johnson warned Mr Putin is bent on a ‘full scale invasion’ and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss summoned Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, to explain the Russian President’s actions. 

After chairing a pre-dawn Cobra meeting, the PM said Mr Putin has ‘completely torn up international law’ after recognising separatist areas and must now face an ‘immediate’ response.

Key Russian figures and businesses are expected to be in the crosshairs when Mr Johnson announces the package in a Commons statement at lunchtime.

He said sanctions will be aimed not just at entities in occupied Ukraine regions but also ‘in Russia itself, targeting Russian economic interests as hard as we can’.

The premier also hinted at supplying more weaponry to Kiev’s forces, saying the UK had already given ‘lethal but defensive’ assistance and ‘we’re looking at what we can do’. 

Tanks have been seen rolling across the border after Russian troops were ordered to carry out what Moscow described as ‘peacekeeping’ duties in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. 

A column of armoured vehicles was spotted in Donetsk, the main city of one of the two so-called ‘republics’, in the early hours of this morning. No insignia were visible on the vehicles, but there is little doubt they are Russian forces deployed on Mr Putin’s orders. 

At the same time, Ukraine said heavy shelling had broken out along nearly all 250 miles of its frontline with the breakaway provinces, leaving two of its soldiers dead and 12 injured in a major escalation in violence.

Military sources today claimed that thousands of Russian troops may already be in Ukraine. 

A Ukrainian reservist with links to military intelligence told MailOnline that more than ten thousand soldiers entered separatist areas overnight, with 6,000 sent to Donetsk, 5,000 sent to Luhansk and 1,500 to the city of Horlivka. 

However, there are signs of divisions among Western allies – many of whom rely heavily on Russian gas and oil – over how strongly to react to the breach. 

The White House has issued an executive order to prohibit US investment and trade in the separatist regions, and additional sanctions are expected to be announced later. 

But France has urged for sanctions to be ‘targeted’ and it could be harder to agree a strong response to recognition of the separatist areas than to a full invasion.

With EU ministers meeting in Brussels to agree their response, Josep Borrell, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, avoided using the word ‘invasion’ as he vowed sanctions against Russia.

He acknowledged that ‘Russian troops are on Ukrainian soil’ but added: ‘I wouldn’t say that’s a fully fledged invasion’. 

Moscow’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov shrugged off the threat of sanctions, saying they would be imposed whatever Russia did. 

‘Our European, American, British colleagues will not stop and will not calm down until they have exhausted all their possibilities for the so-called ”punishment” of Russia,’ he said. 

‘They are already threatening us with all manner of sanctions or, as they say now, ‘the mother of all sanctions’,’ Lavrov said.

‘Well, we’re used to it. We know that sanctions will be imposed anyway, in any case. With or without reason.’

The latest developments on the Ukraine crisis came as: 

The UK’s permanent representative to the UN, Dame Barbara Woodward, told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that ‘Russia has brought us to the brink’, as she urged the country to ‘step back’. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said ‘we are waking up to a very dark day in Europe’ and ‘you can conclude that the invasion of Ukraine has begun’. Kurt Volker, a former US ambassador to Nato, said Russia’s actions in Ukraine have created a ‘very dire’ situation. General Sir Richard Sherriff, Britain’s former top Nato commander, called the Ukraine situation the most perilous in Europe for decades as he told the BBC it is ‘the most dangerous moment in Europe probably at least since 1962 and the Cuban missile crisis’. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said ‘all of us in Europe should worry and not hesitate to take whatever action we need to to deter President Putin from undermining both Nato, but also Europe and, more importantly, our values’. A Ukrainian reservist with links to military intelligence told MailOnline that more than ten thousand soldiers entered separatist areas overnight, with 6,000 sent to Donetsk, 5,000 sent to Luhansk and 1,500 to the city of Horlivka. The Foreign Office is sending ‘rapid deployment teams’ to countries neighbouring Ukraine to assist British nationals who cross over the border.

Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney condemned the Russian move as a ‘blatant’ breach of international law but admitted there were discussions about ‘how far do we go’.

‘The question is how far do we go in relation to that sanctions package,’ he said.

‘I think that there’s no way that the EU can ignore what is a blatant breach of international law.’

Mr Scholz had said overnight: ‘The first sanctions already have to be painful for the Putin system.’

Belgian PM Alexander De Croo said the EU had to keep ‘cool heads’. ‘It has to be appropriate sanctions, we have to keep a cool head, but we have to show that this leads to a high cost for Russia.’ 

Lithuania’s deputy Europe minister Arnoldas Pranckevičius warned that the reaction has to be ‘serious’ and ‘real’ to deter Mr Putin.

‘If we want to deter further actions of President Putin, if we indeed want to stop the war from happening, we need to move ahead with serious measures,’ he said. 

Mr Johnson said of the UK sanctions package: ‘This is I should stress just the first barrage of UK economic sanctions against Russia because we expect I’m afraid that there is more Russian irrational behaviour to come.

‘I’m afraid all the evidence is that President Putin is indeed bent on a full scale invasion of the Ukraine, the overrunning, the subjugation of an independent, sovereign European country and I think, let’s be absolutely clear, that will be absolutely catastrophic.’   

Mr Johnson renewed his call for European countries to wean themselves off Russian energy. 

‘In the UK we have been able to reduce our dependency on Russian gas very substantially,’ he said.

‘Only 3 per cent of our gas supplies now come from Russia.’

Mr Johnson said the response includes granting licences for UK gas reserves but also shifting to low-carbon energy, including nuclear power.

He added: ‘The faster this country can be more self-reliant on our own energy, the more prosperous we will be, but also, of course, the more sustainable our energy prices will be, and that will benefit the UK consumer.’

Earlier, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said explicitly that Russia has ‘invaded’ Ukraine. 

‘We are waking up to a very dark day in Europe and it’s clear from what we have already seen and found out today that the Russians, President Putin, has decided to attack the sovereignty of Ukraine and its territorial integrity,’ he said.

The Health Secretary told Sky News: ‘We have seen that he has recognised these breakaway eastern regions in Ukraine and from the reports we can already tell that he has sent in tanks and troops.

‘From that you can conclude that the invasion of Ukraine has begun.’

The Cobra meeting follows an emergency session of the UN Security Council where the UK’s ambassador Dame Barbara Woodward said Russia has ‘brought us to the brink’, warning that the country’s actions ‘will have severe and far-reaching consequences’.

She said an invasion would unleash ‘the forces of war, death and destruction’ on the people of Ukraine.

‘The humanitarian impact will be terrible on civilians fleeing the fighting. We know that women and children will suffer most.’

She said the Security Council must be united in calling on Russia to ‘de-escalate immediately’, as well as ‘condemning aggression against a sovereign nation and defending the territorial integrity of Ukraine’.

‘Russia has brought us to the brink,’ she said. ‘We urge Russia to step back.’

The Kremlin said Russian forces will ‘maintain peace’ in eastern Ukraine.

The Cobra meeting was to co-ordinate the UK response and agree a ‘significant package of sanctions to be introduced immediately’, No 10 said.

The PM will have calls with other world leaders before updating MPs.

Last night Mr Johnson voiced ‘grave concern’ in a call with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

‘Outlining his grave concern at recent developments in the region, the Prime Minister told President Zelensky that he believed an invasion was a real possibility in the coming hours and days.’

Downing Street also said Mr Johnson told President Zelensky that he would ‘explore sending further defensive support to Ukraine’ at the request of the country’s government.

Later, President Zelensky told his nation ‘we are not afraid of anyone’ after Russia recognised the independence of the separatist regions.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss tweeted about the new sanctions from the UK last night after saying Mr Putin’s actions could not be allowed to go ‘unpunished’.

The European Union and United States were also imposing sanctions in response to the crisis.