Will Russia attack the UK? What Putin has said and why there are fears that he will expand the Ukraine war

He has called the possibility of Nato membership for Ukraine a “red line” for the Kremlin. Third, he wants to show that popular revolutions such as the one that took place in Kyiv in 2014 do not succeed in the long run. The Russian president has recognised the independence of two Russian-controlled territories in east Ukraine. The territories have been armed, financed and politically controlled by Russia since 2014. The UK Parliament is on standby to be recalled over the weekend as "further measures" and "further sanctions" are needed, Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said.

• Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch his “special military operation” against Ukraine was motivated by a belief that the West would not mount any meaningful opposition.
• The dependence of many European countries on Russian gas may also contribute to upward pressure on commodity prices as they seek alternative supplies from elsewhere.
• First, Putin has indicated that he questions Ukraine’s right to statehood, calling modern Ukraine an artificial construct of the Soviet Union.
• A nuclear strike on any UK city would kill everyone within a 1.2-mile radius instantly.

Russian mortar shelling hit the Esman and Druzhbiv communities, as well as the Bilopol community that was also targeted by artillery shelling and a BMD cannon. My colleague Luke Harding in Kyiv is reporting that five people who allegedly tried to steal nearly $40m (£31m) that was supposed to be used to buy shells for the Ukrainian military have been arrested. The funds have since been seized and will be returned to the country’s defence budget, Ukraine’s prosecutor general said. Some of those accused of perpetrating the attacks have been charged with terrorism and treason. “There is no excuse for continuing to fund Putin’s war machine … and [there] has been more than enough time to allow for companies to exit in an orderly way,” he said. Meanwhile Russia's currency, the rouble, fell to an all-time low against the dollar and the euro.

UK will not look away from Russia invasion in Ukraine - PM

While that is the UK aim, the defence secretary said "like so many things these are international organisations, and if not every country wants them to be thrown out of the Swift system, it becomes difficult". Nato - the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation - is a military alliance formed in 1949 by 12 countries, including the US, Canada, the UK and France. HMS Diamond has also left Portsmouth Naval Base as part of the UK's response to support Nato countries in eastern Europe. A missile strike by Russia on London would not be Vladimir Putin’s primary goal should the UK and other nations be dragged into the war in Ukraine, a senior defence official has told i.

Footage verified by the BBC showed missiles slamming into an airport in the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk. Residents of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, say windows in apartment blocks were shaking from constant blasts as the Ukrainian military and Russian forces exchanged shellfire. The UK, EU and other Western allies have vowed to impose tough new sanctions to punish Moscow, but say they will not send in troops.

Why Russia invaded

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has confirmed that several missiles have hit infrastructure and border guards. Explosions have been heard by residents in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa and other cities across the country. However, uncertainty seems to be prevailing in Ukraine as people are being urged to stay at home where possible.

The priority must be for ministers to end the wokery and get back to the infinitely more serious business of preparing for war. One ex senior minister suggested to me that there was a generational divide between those who had lived with the threat of the Cold War era, and those who had not. The former minister, currently a serving Conservative MP, pointed out that the prime minister grew up without that existential threat. He was not making a case for conscription or for an imminent call up of volunteers. Instead, he was urging Britain to prepare for a mass mobilisation of tens of thousands of people, should war break out.

President Putin, 70, has sought to distance himself from military failures, but his authority, at least outside Russia, has been shredded and he makes few trips beyond its borders. Kyiv believes Russia is also seeking to depose the pro-European government in Moldova, where Russian troops are based in the breakaway region of Transnistria bordering Ukraine. Russia has captured the town of Soledar this year and has hopes of seizing the eastern city of Bakhmut on the road to key cities to the west, and of recapturing territory it lost last autumn.

• But without political support, the mindset of a country that does not feel like it is about to go to war is unlikely to change.
• The Ukrainian armed forces said they had shot down five Russian planes and a helicopter - which Russia denies - and inflicted casualties on invading troops.
• Defence ministry officials conspired with employees from a Ukrainian arms firm to embezzle almost $40m earmarked to buy 100,000 mortar shells, Ukraine’s security service said.
• This would give the country a military advantage in eastern Europe without Ukraine even joining the alliance.

But clashes have also been taking place around Kyiv and the Black Sea port cities of Odesa and Mariupol. https://euronewstop.co.uk/which-countries-support-russia-against-ukraine.html have also entered the eastern Luhansk and Kharkiv regions, and moved into the Kherson region from Crimea - a territory that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has been serving prison time since 2021 after leading street protests and starting a nationwide opposition movement, was recently moved to a penal colony in Russia's far north. The Russian president has intensified a crackdown on opposition since the start of his invasion of Ukraine, and this has ramped up further as the elections have approached. A little earlier, we told you about a report in the Financial Times that the EU was proposing to sabotage Hungary's economy if Budapest blocks further aid for Ukraine this week. Mr Zelenskyy has called for public officials to disclose their incomes to increase transparency and eliminate corruption as Ukraine tries to meet the stringent requirements for its bid to join the European Union.

• British prime minister Boris Johnson will speak to Russian president Vladimir Putin later on Monday, as London attempts to pressure Moscow over its troop build-up on the border with Ukraine.
• The decision marks the end of the Minsk peace deal, a troubled road map out of the conflict that would have left the territories in Ukraine.
• The defence expert, who held meetings in Moscow with Russian officials last week, said one of the extra options the UK could provide are intelligence surveillance reports.
• This culminated on 29 December, when Russian unleashed its largest aerial assault against Ukraine since the war began.

On 27 and 28 February 2022, both Ukranian and Russian officials met on the Belarusian border for the first round of peace talks. However, sources have confirmed that no agreements were made and negotiations are set to continue at a later date. They also provided support to a Ukrainian rebellion that had broken out in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, an industrial heartland. Should he need to, President Putin could extend mobilisation and drag out the war. Russia is a nuclear power and he has indicated he would be prepared, if necessary, to use nuclear weapons to protect Russia and cling on to occupied Ukrainian land. "We will certainly make use of all weapon systems available to us. This is not a bluff," he warned.