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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Boris Johnson under pressure from Tories and opposition MPs to go further on Russia sanctions – as it happened

Russia Boris Johnson United Kingdom Ukraine Vladimir Putin United States NATO IS Foreign Office Ben Wallace

Afternoon summary

That is all from me for today. But our coverage of the Ukraine crisis continues in our global blog. It’s here.

Boris Johnson in the Commons earlier
Boris Johnson in the Commons earlier Photograph: Parliament TV/Parliament/Jessica Taylor

David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, was responding to James Cleverly in the sanctions debate on behalf of Labour. Keir Starmer told MPs earlier that the sanctions announced today did not go far enough (see 2.37pm), but Lammy was more explicit about this. He said that the government sanctions package was “too limited and too partial” and he said Labour would be pushing for a more comprehensive package. He said the EU was imposing sanctions on 27 Russian individuals, while the UK was targeting just three people.

Johnson and Macron agree in call 'to work in lockstep' on anti-Russia sanctions, No 10 says

Boris Johnson has spoken to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, this afternoon, Downing Street said. In a statement, a No 10 spokesperson said that Johnson updated Macron on the UK sanctions announced today and that “the leaders agreed they needed to continue to work in lockstep to target Russian individuals and entities bankrolling President Putin’s aggressive approach”.

In the Commons Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, asked James Cleverly if he could include Vladislav Surkov in the sanctions legislation. He said Surkov was President Putin’s right-hand man, or his Rasputin, and that he had organised Russian activity in Donbas. Duncan Smith said it would be good to know that “at least one person responsible for what is going on there” was being sanctioned.

Cleverly said that it was usual practice not to discuss in public who might be subject to sanctions, but he said Duncan Smith’s point had been noted.

Updated

UK to toughen sanctions against Russia even if Putin does not intensify attack against Ukraine, says minister

In response to a question from Robert Jenrick (Con), who asked whether further sanctions would only be imposed if President Putin intensified the aggression in Ukraine, or whether they would happen anyway, James Cleverly, the Foreign Office minister, told MPs that he was glad to have the chance to clarify the government’s position. He said the government was planning to tighten sanctions even if Putin did take no further action. He said:

We intend to escalate these sanctions, to ratchet up these sanctions, in response to what has already happened in order to deter further aggression and in order to stimulate Putin to withdraw the troops from Ukraine, to take them away from the border and send them back home to their families.

James Cleverly
James Cleverly. Photograph: Parliament TV

Updated

MPs debate regulations giving ministers power to impose tougher sanctions on Russia

In the Commons MPs have just started debating the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 (SI, 2022, No. 123) – the secondary legislation, announced two weeks ago, that will give ministers the power to impose a wider range of sanctions on Russia than allowed previously. The regulations are here.

These are enabling regulations. The actual measures announced today are set out elsewhere.

James Cleverly, the Foreign Office minister, is opening the debate.

He says the aim of the measures announced today is to stop President Putin going any further, to get him to withdraw his troops and to encourage him to de-escalate.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, intervenes to say he is not clear whether today’s measures are intended to stop Putin going any further, or get him to withdraw his troops.

Cleverly says the aim is to remove the threat facing Ukraine.

Updated

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has said Russia should face “the most severe sanctions” following the invasion of Ukraine. In a statement she said:

The Scottish government unreservedly condemns Russia’s actions, which are in flagrant violation of international law and which further destabilise an already volatile situation ...

We offer our unqualified support for Ukrainian independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity and to the people of Ukraine. We stand with members of the international community in opposing Russian aggression, in demanding the most severe sanctions on Russia and in seeking to deter a further and wider invasion of Ukraine.

Nicola Sturgeon.
Nicola Sturgeon. Photograph: Fraser Bremner/Scottish Daily Mail/PA

At the afternoon Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said Boris Johnson “mis-spoke” when he told MPs earlier that Roman Abramovich had been subject to sanctions. (See 4.11pm.) No 10 is expected to correct the record.

The National Cyber Security Centre has urged organisations in the UK to tighten their online security in the light of the Russian aggression in Ukraine.

UK willing to go 'much further' with sanctions against Russia, says Truss

Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, has said the government is willing to go “much further” in tightening sanctions on Russsia if President Putin does not “pull back”. In a statement accompanying the Foreign Office news release giving details of the sanctions announced today, she said:

This first wave of sanctions will hit oligarchs and banks close to the Kremlin. It sends a clear message that the UK will use our economic heft to inflict pain on Russia and degrade their strategic interests.

And we are prepared to go much further if Russia does not pull back from the brink. We will curtail the ability of the Russian state and Russian companies to raise funds in our markets, prohibit a range of hi-tech exports, and further isolate Russian banks from the global economy.

These will be surgically targeted sanctions that will hit Russia hard.

Liz Truss leaving No 10 today, followed by Sir Tim Barrow, political director at the Foreign Office.
Liz Truss leaving No 10 today, followed by Sir Tim Barrow, political director at the Foreign Office. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters

Updated

No 10 is expected to correct the record on Roman Abramovich, PA Media reports, after Boris Johnson told MPs he had been subject to sanctions. (See 2.09pm.) Johnson is thought to have been referring to a visa issue.

As PA says, Abramovich had issues around his entrepreneurial visa in 2018. In October 2021, the businessman’s spokesperson confirmed he travelled to London as an Israeli citizen - therefore entering the United Kingdom without the need for a visa.

Updated

And here is some more media comment on the sanctions package.

From ITV’s political editor, Robert Peston

From the Spectator’s James Forsyth

According to Bloomberg’s Kitty Donaldson’s, shares in Russia’s two biggest banks have gone up follow the publication of the UK’s sanctions list, which left them out.

Scotland to lift all Covid legal restrictions on 21 March

Scotland’s system of mandatory vaccine passports for nightclubs and sports venues is to end next week, as Nicola Sturgeon moved to lift rules requiring face masks on buses and in shops. My colleague Severin Carrell has the story here.

Tom Tugendhat, the Conservative chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, told the World at One that the UK should be going “much further, much faster” in terms of imposing sanctions on Russia. He said:

I’d like to see this go much further, much faster. As my former boss, the chief of the defence staff, Gen Lord Richards, put it: clout, don’t dribble. You allow people to think that you’re not serious if you don’t respond seriously quickly, and it can lead to worse confusion in the future.

What you need to do is you need to be extremely clear, extremely quickly, and make it perfectly obvious that Russian dirty money and Russian influence peddling in the United Kingdom is not OK, and that we’re going to defend the British people against the corruption that they bring. So I would like to see the identification of President Putin’s wealth - I’d like to see it splashed all over every newspaper in the world.

Tom Tugendhat.
Tom Tugendhat. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

As the FT’s Peter Foster reports, No 10 has shot down a proposal from Jacob Rees-Mogg, the new Brexit opportunities minister, for the government to just accept other countries’ safety standards, instead of imposing its own post-Brexit. Foster explains the story in a thread starting here.

Boris Johnson being briefed by defence officials on Ukraine earlier today.
Boris Johnson being briefed by defence officials on Ukraine earlier today. Photograph: Andrew Parsons/Downing Street

Government sources are saying the sanctions announced by the government today against Russia are “just the start”, the BBC’s Nick Eardley reports.

Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, has described the false flag operations being launched by Russian troops in Ukraine as “almost comical”. He said:

President Putin wants a legacy, it’s our duty to make sure he gets a legacy, but not the one he is planning.

A man who doesn’t follow international law, a man who is now has a very large army on the doorstep of a sovereign state and seems to not even worry that the false flags and the fake news we are watching is so obvious, it is sadly almost comical.

The actions we’ve seen today and last night are absolutely according to his playbook.

It’s according to what he wrote in July last year, and if you want to know what his next intentions are, I recommend you listen to his latest speech, that he made last night, full of huge inaccuracies, one of which was that Ukraine is not a proper state.

I should remind people, Ukraine has been separate to Russia as a nation longer than it has been part of Russia, that is a simple fact of history. He should look at his history books, and not selectively pick dates that suit his narrative.

Wallace gave his own account of the history of Ukraine in a long article for the Times last month that was widely praised.

A row has erupted in cabinet over plans to scrap a ban on the import and sale of fur and foie gras after No 10 was convinced to kill off policies that would outlaw the trade. As my colleague Helena Horton reports, Zac Goldsmith, the environment minister and the ban’s main proponent, spoke out after his colleagues, including Jacob Rees-Mogg, persuaded the prime minister to ditch the proposals. Helena’s full story is here.

Johnson under pressure from Tory and opposition MPs to go further on sanctions against Russia

Boris Johnson came to the Commons with an announcement about sanctions against Russia, but he faced a blizzard of criticism from MPs who complained that he was not going far enough. Some Conservative MPs sounded just as angry as their opposition counterparts and (apart from on the issue of Russian donors to the Conservative party) the debate did not divide along party lines at all. It was more hawks versus doves, with Johnson (who at one pointed cautioned against “casual Russophobia” - see 1.17pm) very much in the dove contingent.

Here are quotes from some of the MPs saying sanctions should go further.

Conservative MPs

From Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader

Should it not be that we need to hit them if we are going to hit them with sanctions hard and hit them now? They need to feel the pain of the first part of this decision. The second thing is, what is the ultimatum to them now? If they move further, are we going to take further action?

Mark Harper, the former Tory chief whip, called for “further and stronger measures even if President Putin does no more”.

From John Baron

I hope [the PM] takes away from this exchange today the strong cross-party support for tougher sanctions now, because that is what is needed.

Peter Bone said both sides of the house were expecting “stronger sanctions” to be announced.

Opposition MPs

From Keir Starmer

I welcome the sanctions introduced today. And the international community’s efforts to unite with a collective response. However, we must be prepared to go further.

I understand the tactic of holding back further sanctions on Putin and his cronies. To try and deter an invasion of the rest of Ukraine. But a threshold has already been breached. A sovereign nation has been invaded in a war of aggression based on lies and fabrications.

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.

From Chris Bryant, a Labour former minister

From Liam Byrne, a Labour former minister

From Margaret Hodge, a Labour former minister

From Hilary Benn, the Labour former cabinet minister

The prime minister said … ‘there is a lot more that we are going to do in the event of an invasion’. The prime minister has just told the house that he regards what happened overnight as a ‘renewed invasion of Ukraine’. If that is the government’s view then why is he waiting before imposing full sanctions on Russia now?

From Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster

I welcome the sanctions that are now being brought forward by the UK government – but it is deeply regrettable that the delay has allowed many Russian individuals to shift dirty assets and money in the last number of weeks. The UK government must go further, including suspending Russia from the Swift payments system.

From Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader

Freeze and begin seizing the assets of every single one of Putin’s cronies in the UK and then expel these oligarchs from our country as part of a much stronger sanctions regime.

Second, recognise the existential threat posed by Putin to our Nato allies by immediately cancelling [the prime minister’s] own decision, his misguided decision, to cut our armed forces by 10,000 troops and, third, no longer tolerate international sporting or cultural events hosted in Russia.

From Layla Moran, the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesperson

Updated

Boris Johnson left the Commons as soon as his statement was over, and he did not wait to hear Chris Bryant (Lab) use a point of order to say that Johnson was wrong when he told MPs earlier that Roman Abramovich was one of the Russian oligarchs already subject to UK sanctions. Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, said that if Johnson was wrong, he would expect the record to be corrected.

Johnson says he is opposed to children of Russian oligarchs being removed from UK schools as part of sanctions package

Back in the Commons Nickie Aiken (Con) asked Boris Johnson if he would support calls for the children of Russian oligarchs to be removed from British schools as part of an escalation of sanction measures.

In response, Johnson said he would not go that far. He said he felt the sins of the fathers should not be visited on their children.

When it comes to children, maybe I am not quite there. The sins of the fathers—or indeed the mothers—should not be visited on their children, in my view.

The Commons statement has now finished.

Updated

Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, has stressed that the sanctions against Russia announced by the government today are only likely to be a start. Speaking after chairing a meeting of defence ministers from the Joint Expeditionary Force countries (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the UK), Wallace said:

We have a range of sanctions, we’ve made them public – we put them before parliament a few weeks ago. We have chosen to use some of those sanctions – that doesn’t mean to say we won’t use more. We are prepared with a whole raft of sanctions.

We also know that the most important message to send to President Putin is that we are completely unified across Nato, the EU and the US and the UK. We must do all of these things in lockstep – that’s what we’re doing.

Ben Wallace speaking to the media after his meeting with fellow JEF defence ministers.
Ben Wallace speaking to the media after his meeting with fellow JEF defence ministers. Photograph: Jacob King/PA

Updated

Here is the full text of Boris Johnson’s opening statement to MPs.

In response to a question from George Howarth (Lab), Johnson told MPs that Vladimir Putin was turning Russia into a pariah state. He said:

We need to make it absolutely clear to Russia that as a result of this venture, this ill-conceived and disastrous venture in Ukraine, his country will end up, as I have said, poorer, more encircled by Nato, and engaged in a disastrous conflict with fellow Slavs - and a pariah state. That is what President Putin is willing on his people, a pariah state.

The Times’s Steven Swinford has a useful list of the MPs who have been complaining during this statement that the sanctions announced by the PM do not go far enough.

Liam Byrne (Lab) says “pulling our punches” does not work with President Putin. He says the UK should be hitting Russian bankers harder.

Johnson says Russian bankers are being hit hard.

Back in the Commons Layla Moran, the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesperson, says two of the indivividuals sanctoined by the UK have already been sanctioned by the US. This is not the UK acting with its allies, but catching up with them, she says. She asks what the trigger will be for further sanctions.

Johnson says he thinks it is inevitable that further sanctions will be imposed.

Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, has said she will be speak to the football governing bodies about trying to stop the Champions League final being held in St Petersburg. Earlier Boris Johnson said it would be “inconceivable” for that fixture to go ahead in Russia. (See 1.04pm.)

As PA Media reports, St Petersburg is due to host this season’s Uefa Champions League final in May. English clubs Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool remain in the competition.

Ben Bradshaw (Lab) says the three individuals sanctioned by the UK have been sanctioned by the US for the last four years. He says the government should use unexplained wealth orders more widely. Not one has been imposed since Johnson became PM, he says.

Johnson says many investigations relating to unexplained wealth orders are under way.

Updated

Back in the Commons Caroline Lucas, the Green MP, says the sanctions announced today do not go far enough.

She made the same point earlier on Twitter.

UK sanctions against Russia 'pretty tepid', says campaigner

And Bill Browder, the American financier who has campaigned in the US and elsewhere for laws imposing Magnitsky sanctions against Russia (so-called after Browder’s tax adviser, Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Russian prison after speaking out about state corruption), also claims the UK sanctions announced today are “pretty tepid”.

This is from Max Seddon, the FT’s Moscow bureau chief, on the sanctions announced by Boris Johnson this afternoon.

This is from David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, on the sanctions package announced by Boris Johnson.

Johnson urges MPs not to let opposition to Putin's actions in Ukraine spill over into 'casual Russophobia'

Tan Dehsi (Lab) asks when Johnson will stop playing tennis with Russian oligarchs, in return for donations to the Conservative party.

Johnson claims the government is ahead of other countries in imposing sanctions on Russia.

He says nobody should donate money to a political party in the UK unless they are a UK national.

But he says opposition to what is happening in Ukraine should not spill over into “casual Russophobia”. He implies that that is what he has heard from some MPs during this session. He says he does not want to discriminate against the Russians as people.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, said the government should go further with its sanctions.

And he was followed by the Labour MP Chris Bryant, who also said sanctions needed to go further. Bryant told Johnson that MPs would support a tougher package, but that they needed to be imposed now.

Johnson claimed the measures announced today would have an effect.

Here is the government note with details of the sanctions being imposed on Russian banks and individuals today.

This is from the Scotsman’s Martyn McLaughlin.

Updated

Julian Lewis, the Conservative chair of the intelligence and security committee, asks the government to set 3% of GDP as the benchmark for defence spending.

Julian Lewis, the Conservative chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee, called on the Prime Minister to “accept 3% of GDP on defence as a suitable future benchmark”.
He asked: “Does (he) accept that too many Nato governments and political parties have accepted energy dependence on Putin and financial dependence on dodgy donations from Russian oligarchs?
“Given that we spent between 4.5 and 5% of GDP on defence throughout the 1980s until the end of the Cold War, will he now accept 3% of GDP on defence as a suitable future benchmark?”
Boris Johnson replied: “Completely right to say that we have failed to wean ourselves off dependence on Russian hydrocarbons since 2014, I think that’s been a tragic mistake by European countries.
“In the UK we’re in the fortunate position of only having 3% of our gas coming from Russia, but other European countries have learned that they have much more to do.
“By the way, I salute the decision of the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to cancel Nord Stream 2. I think it’s a brave step by Olaf and the right thing to do.
“On his point about defence spending, actually we’re up at 2.4% now of GDP, I think one of the very highest in Nato, and we are the second biggest contributor, second biggest military power, in Nato already.”

Johnson says the governmnt is at 2.4% of GDP, which is one of the highest figures in Nato.

UPDATE: Lewis said:

Does [the PM] accept that too many Nato governments and political parties have accepted energy dependence on Putin and financial dependence on dodgy donations from Russian oligarchs?

Given that we spent between 4.5 and 5% of GDP on defence throughout the 1980s until the end of the Cold War, will he now accept 3% of GDP on defence as a suitable future benchmark?

Johnson replied:

Completely right to say that we have failed to wean ourselves off dependence on Russian hydrocarbons since 2014, I think that’s been a tragic mistake by European countries.

In the UK we’re in the fortunate position of only having 3% of our gas coming from Russia, but other European countries have learned that they have much more to do.

By the way, I salute the decision of the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to cancel Nord Stream 2. I think it’s a brave step by Olaf and the right thing to do.

On his point about defence spending, actually we’re up at 2.4% now of GDP, I think one of the very highest in Nato, and we are the second biggest contributor, second biggest military power, in Nato already.

Updated

Johnson says Champions League final should not be held in Russia

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, says the government should seize the assets of all Russian oligarchs in the UK, and expel these people. And he says international cultural events should not take place in Russia. Will the government back calls to prevent the Champions League final being held in St Petersburg?

Johnson says there is more action to come from the government against President Putin’s “cronies”. And he says it is “inconceivable” that major international sporting events could now be held in Russia.

Updated

Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative chair of the Commons defence committee, says sanctions alone will not be enough. He says that hard power should be considered and that Nato “should not be benched”. He urges the PM to consider backing a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

Johnson says Nato countries are offering support to Ukraine, including military support.

Updated

Tom Tugendhat, the Conservative chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, says the government should introduce a law for the registration of foreign agents to distract Russian activities in the UK. Johnson says the government is looking at this.

Details of sanctions being imposed on Russian banks and individuals today

This is what Boris Johnson said in his opening statement about the sanctions being imposed today.

Today, the UK is sanctioning the following four five Russian banks: Rossiya, IS Bank, General Bank, promsvyazbank and the Black Sea Bank.

And we are sanctioning three very high net worth individuals: Gennady Timchenko, Boris Rotenberg, and Igor Rotenberg.

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 is the first tranche, the first barrage, of what we are prepared to do: we will hold further sanctions at readiness, to be deployed alongside the United States and the European Union if the situation escalates still further.

Updated

Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, says Russia has effectively annexed another two Ukrainian regions, in defiance of international law.

This is not about peacekeeping, he says. “This is war-mongering, plain and simple.”

He says the SNP welcomes the sanctions being brought forward, but he says the delay has allowed Russians to shift money out of the UK in recent weeks.

Theresa May, the former Conservative PM, welcomes Johnson’s statement.

But she asks if the PM shares her concern about the “wider worldwide trend of authoritiarian states trying to impose their way of thinking on others”.

While the focus today is rightly on protecting Ukrainian independence and territorial integrity, what lies behind this is a wider worldwide trend of authoritarian states trying to impose their way of thinking on others. And that the battle in which we must now engage is nothing more or less than the defence of democracy itself.

Johnson agrees. He says what is happening will be followed in countries like Taiwan and around the world.

That is what’s at stake and what happens in Ukraine now is being watched around the world, and the echoes will be heard in Taiwan, in east Asia and throughout the world.

Updated

Johnson is replying to Starmer.

He says the change in Labour’s stance on Russia over the last couple of years (ie, since Jeremy Corbyn was leader) is massively to be welcomed.

He says the measures announced today are tough. But the further sanctions being prepared are much tougher, he says.

Starmer says the government has failed to stop Russian money coming into Britain. And the government needs to do more to keep foreign money out of politics, he says.

He says Russian aggression has torn up the Minsk protcol. But even now the government must pursue diplomatic routes, he says.

Putin seeks division, Starmer says. He says the west must stay united.

Putin thinks the west is too corrupted to do the right thing, he says. “We must prove him wrong.”

Starmer calls for government to go further with sanctions against Russia

Keir Starmer says yesterday was a “dark day” for Europe. “Putin appears determined to plunge Ukraine into a wider war”, he says.

He says Putin fears democracy. People do not want live under an “erratic and violent authoritarian”, he says.

He says it is important for MPs to show they will not be divided.

He welcomes the sanctions. But the government should go further, he says. He says he understands the case for holding back some measures.

But if the government does not impose a full set of sanctions now, Putin will conclude that he will not be punished, he says.

He calls for RT (formerly known as Russia Today) to be banned.

Updated

Johnson warns UK to prepare for 'protracted crisis'

Johnson says “we should steel ourselves for a protracted crisis”.

Because the stakes are so high, “Putin’s venture in Ukraine must fail”, he says. And it must be seen to fail.

Updated

Johnson says UK imposing sanctions on five Russian banks, and three wealthy individuals

Johnson says sanctions are being imposed on five Russian banks, and three high net-worth individuals.

Any assets they hold in the UK will be frozen, and the individuals will be banned from coming to the UK.

This is the first tranche, he says. He says further sanctions will follow if Putin goes further.

UPDATE: See 12.56pm for more details.

Updated

Johnson says 44 million people in Ukraine now risk being involved in war.

He says the government has tried to find a peaceful way through this crisis.

He says the defence secretary and chief of defence staff held a joint visit to Moscow - the first of its kind since a visit by Churchill in the second world war.

He says the government will not give up trying to avert war.

He says the UK will now guarantee up to $500m of development finance to Ukraine.

He spoke to President Zelenskiy of Ukraine last night, and assured him of the UK’s support.

Now the UK will impose sanctons, he says.

Updated

Johnson tells MPs Putin has staged 'renewed invasion' of Ukraine

Boris Johnson is delivering his statement to MPs now.

He says MPs should be in no doubt that what has happened amounts to a “renewed invasion” of Ukraine. And President Putin is establishing a pretext for a full-scale invasion, he says.

He says it is hard to imagine Russia plotting the destruction of a neighbour. But that is what seems to be happening, he says.

This is from Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, about the reprimand delivered to the Russian ambassador this morning.

Russian ambassador summoned to Foreign Office over Ukraine invasion

The Downing Street lobby briefing has just finished. Here are the main points.

  • The Russian ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, has been summoned to the Foreign Office this morning to hear the government’s protests about the decision to send troops into eastern Ukraine, the prime minister’s spokesman said. But there is no suggestion that the ambassador is going to be expelled.
  • The spokesman said the government considered that the dispatch of troops to eastern Ukraine did amount to an “invasion” of the country. But he made a distinction between this and a “full-scale invasion”, which he said was not happening. As Alex Wickham explains in his London Playbook briefing, some countries have been reluctant to use the word invasion because so far President Putin has only dispatched Russian soldiers to areas already under Russian control, held by separatists who have been covertly aided by the Russian military. The PM’s spokesman said:

There is no doubt that the deployment of these forces that we’ve seen reported in sovereign Ukrainian territory amounts to renewed invasion of the country. President Putin has sent his troops in, he’s broken international law, he’s repudiated the Minsk agreement.

We believe that Russia’s actions overnight could well be a precursor to a full-scale invasion. But clearly, we want to continue to pursue any diplomatic avenues that exist and we’ll be speaking to other world leaders, as I say, and urging Russia to step back from this action.

  • The spokesman said that the UK sanctions being announced by Boris Johnson in the Commons shortly were being coordinated with other nations. “We are acting in a coordinated way,” the spokesman said. “We are discussing this with European partners, with the US and ... you can expect a united approach to sanctions,” he went on.
  • The spokesman said the Foreign Office is sending “rapid deployment teams” to countries neighbouring Ukraine to assist British nationals who cross over the border. Teams are being deployed to Poland, Moldova, Lithuania and Slovakia to provide consular support, the spokesman said.

Updated

Ukrainians in Britain have urged the UK government to act without delay as Russian troops are ordered into the country, PA Media reports. In a letter sent to the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, and copied to Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer, the national chairman of the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain (AUGB), Petro Rewko, said it is clear the “window for diplomacy” has closed. He said:

As you will be well aware, the scope for prolonged military threats and potential further aggression is very real and the consequent humanitarian disaster would be unimaginable.

History shows us that Russia’s invading forces will have no regard to the safety and human rights of the civilian population, that the death toll will be significant, and that war crimes will be committed.

We believe that it is time for the UK government and its Nato partners to act without further delay, as Russia is intensifying its war against Ukraine now.

Updated

Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, has renewed calls for Britons who are still in Ukraine to leave.

Ben Wallace chairing a meeting of defence ministers from the Joint Expeditionary Force countries at Belvoir Castle this morning.
Ben Wallace chairing a meeting of defence ministers from the Joint Expeditionary Force countries at Belvoir Castle this morning. Photograph: Simon Dawson/Downing Street

According to a report by Lucy Fisher in the Telegraph, Russian oligarchs have been lobbying the Foreign Office in the hope of ensuring they avoid being hit by UK sanctions. Fisher says:

The flurry of correspondence from individuals and companies to the UK government undermines claims that the Kremlin is unfazed by the prospect of economic measures.

Earlier this month, Viktor Tatarintsev, Russia’s ambassador to Sweden, claimed that Vladimir Putin “doesn’t give a s---” about sanctions as he attempted to pour scorn on the West’s key strategy.

It is understood the Foreign Office has been contacted by panicked Russian oligarchs and firms collectively worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

Britain – which has been liaising with the US and EU over a severe economic response to the crisis – has a blacklist of targets ready if Russia invades Ukraine. The details remain confidential in order to avoid allowing those listed to act pre-emptively to protect assets.

A reader has been asking if there is an English transcript of President Putin’s long speech about Ukraine last night. The Kremlin has published a version on its website, but it is not complete (the transcript ends “to be continued”). And Reuters has a report with highlights.

In an interview with LBC this morning Sajid Javid, the health secretary, also said that if NHS staff needed a Covid test for work, they would continue to be able to get one for free, even after free tests stop being routinely available in England from 1 April. “What I can guarantee is that NHS staff if they need a test, they will receive that test for free and as part of their employment,” Javid said. But he said it would be for local managers to decide when tests were needed, not central government.

Updated

In his Today programme interview this morning Sajid Javid, the health secretary, did not challenge claims that there was an internal government row between his department and the Treasury about the funding of ongoing Covid testing and surveillance schemes ahead of the announcement yesterday about the end of Covid regulations in England. Asked about the reports, Javid said:

If you are asking me did we debate in government what should be our final response in our Living with Covid document, of course we did because that’s normal in government, that’s what you do.

Did we come to an agreement on the best way forward - myself, the prime minister and others, the entire cabinet? Of course we did. That’s why I think what we set out yesterday is a historic moment that we can all be proud of.

Updated

The UK government has recorded the first monthly budget surplus since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, despite a weaker than expected January performance as rising inflation pushed up debt interest costs, my colleague Richard Partington reports.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has posted a Twitter thread on the figures starting here.

Boris Johnson leaving No 10 earlier this morning.
Boris Johnson leaving No 10 earlier this morning. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Ukraine conflict as serious as Cuban missile crisis, Javid claims

In an interview this morning on the Today programme Sajid Javid, the health secretary, said that the dispute between Russia and Ukraine was as serious as the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, which is widely seen as the closest the world has come to nuclear war since 1945. Asked about the comparison, Javid said:

I do think it’s as serious a situation as that. There is still an opportunity here for President [Vladimir] Putin to step back, despite him having now chosen confrontation over dialogue. It is not to late for him to step back and bring his troops back into Russia and open dialogue.

Javid was responding to a question about whether he agreed with an earlier contributor to the programme, General Sir Richard Shirreff, the former deputy supreme commander of Nato, who said this was the most dangerous moment in Europe at least since the Cuban missile crisis. Shirreff told the programme:

This is the most dangerous moment in Europe probably at least since 1962 and the Cuban missile crisis, and it could be much worse than that, because this is the invasion of a sovereign country which could turn into a catastrophic war, with warfare on a scale not seen in Europe since 1945. So I think it is difficult to overstate the seriousness of the situation.

When it was put to him that the Cuban missile crisis involved a potential nuclear conflict, Shirreff said the analogy was apt because “the Russians integrate nuclear thinking into every aspect of their military doctrine, and they practice it”.

Javid was interviewed immediately afterwards and he was asked if he also thought it was as serious as the Cuban missile crisis. He replied: “Yes, I would agree with that analysis.”

General Sir Richard Shirreff.
General Sir Richard Shirreff. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/The Guardian

Johnson claims UK sanctions package coming immediately will 'hit Russia very hard'

Here are the key points from Boris Johnson’s pooled TV interview this morning after the Cobra meeting.

  • Johnson said the UK government would “immediately” impose sanctions on Russia in response to President Putin’s decision to send troops into eastern Ukraine. He said the sanctions would be targeted “not just at entities in Donbas and Luhansk and Donetsk, but in Russia itself, targeting Russian economic interests as hard as we can”. He said full details would be set out in the Commons later. But he went on:

The intention is not just to hit the entities within Luhansk and Donetsk, but those Russian economic interests that have been supporting Russia’s war machine ... They will hit Russia very hard.

  • He said a full-scale invasion was expected, and that this would would be followed by further sanctions. He said:

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.

Talking about what further sanctions might do, he said:

Be in no doubt, if Russian companies are prevented from raising capital on financial markets, if we unpeel the facade of Russian ownership of companies, of property, it will start to hurt.

  • He said all his predictions about Russia had been vindicated in this crisis. He said:

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. The sad thing is that at every turn in this crisis the UK’s pessimistic predictions have been vindicated. We said that there would be false flag operations and there have been false flag operations. We said that there would be provocations in the Donbas, and that’s exactly what we are now seeing.

  • He said Putin had “completely torn up international law”, including the Minsk agreements, with his actions last night.
  • He said Europe had to cut its reliance on Russian oil and gas. The west’s response to the annexation of Crimea in 2014 had not been tough enough, he said. He went on:

In the end, we did not do enough as Europeans to wean ourselves off Russian hydrocarbons, Russian oil and gas. And to a certain extent now ... the spikes in gas prices to which European economies are so vulnerable is a consequence of that failure to move away from that dependency. That’s what we’ve got to do now; it’s vital that we cut the umbilicus, we snip the drip feed into our bloodstream from Nord Stream.

  • But he played down the impact of the crisis on UK consumers, saying they UK only got 3% of its gas from Russia.
Boris Johnson on Sky News
Boris Johnson on Sky News. Photograph: Sky News

Updated

Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, has described the situation in Ukraine as “incredibly serious”. Speaking at a meeting of defence ministers from the Joint Expeditionary Force countries (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the UK), Wallace said:

It’s incredibly serious what’s happening in Ukraine.

Many of us were forewarning that President Putin already had an agenda - you heard that agenda in his speech last night.

This is a sovereign state which has now had some of its land effectively annexed from it.

This is a sovereign state, a democratic state in Europe. 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.

Johnson confirms UK to impose sanctions on Moscow after Russia sends troops into Ukraine

Good morning. Boris Johnson was chairing a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee this morning to discuss the Ukraine crisis and, speaking afterwards, he confirmed that the “first barrage of UK economic sanctions against Russia” in response will be announced today. He also said a further tranche of sanctions would follow if Vladimir Putin were to extend his invasion beyond the enclaves in Donetsk and Luhansk, already under Russian control, into the rest of the country. Johnson said:

[The sanctions] will hit Russia very hard and there is a lot more that we are going to do in the event of an invasion.

Be in no doubt that if Russian companies are prevented from raising capital on the UK financial markets, if we unpeel the facade of Russian ownership of companies, of property, it will start to hurt.

Johnson said that Putin had “completely torn up international law” by his actions in Ukraine and that, if he launched a full-scale invasion, it had to fail. The prime minister said:

I just want everybody to be in no doubt that if Vladimir Putin continues down this track of violence, of aggression, of a full-scale invasion, of encircling Kyiv itself, which is what he seems to be proposing to do, capturing the Ukrainian capital, it is absolutely vital that that effort, that conquest of another European country, should not succeed and that Putin should fail.

There is full coverage of the crisis from a global perspective on our Ukraine live blog, which is here.

But the crisis is also dominating UK politics, and I will be covering the British reaction here. Here is the agenda for the day.

After 12.30pm: Boris Johnson makes a statement to MPs on Russia and Ukraine.

2pm: George Eustice, the environment secretary, gives a speech at the National Farmers’ Union conference.

2.20pm: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minster, makes a statement to MSPs on Covid.

Also today Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, is hosting a meeting of the defence ministers of the Joint Expeditionary Force nations in Leicestershire.

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com.

Updated

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