Boris Johnson has said that a full-scale war in Ukraine is imminent as he announced the “first barrage” of sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Addressing a solemn House of Commons, the Prime Minister warned: “We must not brace ourselves for the next possible stages of Putin’s plan, the violent subversion of areas of eastern Ukraine by Russian operatives and their hirelings followed by a general offensive by the nearly 200,000 Russian troops gathered on the frontiers at peak readiness to attack."
“If the worst happens, then a European nation of 44 million men, women and children would become the target of a full-scale war of aggression, waged without a shred of justification to the absurd and even mystical reasons that Putin described last night.”
The Prime Minister announced sanctions against five Russian banks and three “very high net worth” individuals as a first response to the incursion into break-away regions in the east of Ukraine.
Boris Johnson added: “Any assets they hold in the UK will be frozen, the individuals concerned will be banned from travelling here and we will prohibit all UK individuals and entities from having any dealings with them.”
“This the first tranche, the first barrage of what we are prepared to do and we hold further sanctions at readiness to be deployed.”
He warned: “We should steel ourselves for a protracted crisis, determined that Putin will not drag us back to a state where might is right.”
Labour’s Keir Starmer welcomed the sanctions and made a show of unity with the government.
He said: “War in Ukraine will be bloody it will cost lives and history will score Putin as the aggressor.”
But Starmer called for deeper and swifter sanctions and demanded that the Putin-backed Russia Today channel have its UK broadcast licence cancelled.
The Labour leader said the government has failed to stop Russian money coming into Britain and that Johnson needed to do more to keep foreign money out of politics.
He said: “If we do not respond with a full set of sanctions now Putin will once again take away the message that the benefits of aggression outweigh the costs.”
Ian Blackford also pledged a united response from the SNP and joined a cross-party calls from former Tory leader IainDuncan Smith, Lib Dem Ed Davey and Labour's Chris Bryant for harsher sanctions.
Blackford told the Commons: “How we know collectively respond define the days to come.This chamber, especially during recent months, has seen fierce debate and disagreements. "
"But today, I think it’s important in the face of Russian aggression against Ukraine, that in this House that we all stand together, stand together and stand with our partners across Europe and indeed across the globe.”
He added: “We stand with the Ukrainian people who are now under assault. A European country, an ally, is under attack."
"We should be very clear about what is now happening, this is an illegal Russian occupation of Ukraine, just as it was in Crimea. Russia has effectively annexed another two Ukrainian regions, in a blatant breach of international law.”
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