UK politics: Boris Johnson says he fears Putin may use chemical weapons in Ukraine – as it happened

Boris Johnson defended the time it has taken to impose sanctions on oligarchs. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

5.40pm GMT

Afternoon summary

• Boris Johnson has voiced fears that President Putin may use chemical weapons in Ukraine. (See 5.28pm.)

• The Chelsea football club owner, Roman Abramovich, is among seven of Russia’s wealthiest and most influential oligarchs who have been hit with sanctions by the UK, in an effort to further punish allies of Vladimir Putin over the invasion of Ukraine.

• The UK is to ease its rigid entry requirements for Ukrainian refugees, meaning those with passports can apply for entry online and only have to give biometric details when they are in the UK, Priti Patel has said.

• British soldiers who travel to Ukraine to fight can expect to be court-martialled, Boris Johnson has said, adding that civilians should also avoid going there to fight.

• Twitter has removed a post from the Russian embassy in London about the Mariupol hospital bombing which claimed the facility was no longer operational and that images had been faked, following criticism from Downing Street.

• Boris Johnson has promised bereaved families will have their voices heard, as he published wide-ranging terms of reference for the public inquiry into the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

• Waiting times for cancer care in England are the longest on record, the latest figures have revealed, forcing tens of thousands of patients every month to wait longer than they should to see a specialist or start treatment.

That’s all from me for today. But our Ukraine coverage continues on our global live blog. It’s here.

Boris Johnson and Ben Wallace (right) speaking with members of the ship’s company onboard HMS Dauntless, a Type 45 destroyer of the Royal Navy, on a visit to the Cammell Laird shipyard in Merseyside today. Photograph: Phil Noble/PA

5.28pm GMT

Johnson says he fears Putin may use chemical weapons in Ukraine

Boris Johnson has voiced fears that President Putin may use chemical weapons in Ukraine.

Echoing language used by the White House, Johnson told Sky News that Russian claims about its enemies getting ready to use chemical weapons were “straight out of their playbook”, and similar to what happened before the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

In an interview with Beth Rigby, Johnson said:

I’ll make you one other prediction, by the way, which is that the stuff that you’re hearing about chemical weapons – this is straight out of their playbook.

They start saying that there are chemical weapons that have been stored by their opponents or by the Americans. And so when they themselves deploy chemical weapons, as I fear they may, they have a sort of maskirovka, a fake story, ready to go. And you’ve seen it in Syria. You saw it even in the UK.

Asked if he expected a chemical weapons attack by Russia, Johnson said:

I just note that that is what they’re already doing. It is a cynical, barbaric government, I’m afraid.

The UK and the US are publicising their concerns, and their analysis of the propaganda tactics Putin is using, in the hope of trying to deter from using these weapons. Before the war started they also sought to gain the upper hand in the information war with Moscow by releasing intelligence about the Russian troop build-up on the border with Ukraine.

Sky released these quotes ahead of the full interview being broadcast at 9pm.

The armed forces minister James Heappey made similar comments in an interview this morning (see 8.58am) but the warning carries more force coming from the PM. Heappey also said the use of chemical weapons would have to be met by an “international response”, but ministers have not clarified what that might mean.

Updated at 5.34pm GMT