Boris Johnson has insisted that Britain will “not flinch” and can proceed to supply “unconditional and immovable” help to Nato, amid continued fears that Russia may very well be making ready to invade Ukraine.
Moscow continues so as to add navy may to its military amassed close to the Ukrainian border, following a sequence of calls for to Nato – which have been formally rejected final month – together with that Ukraine won’t be allowed to hitch the western navy alliance.
Echoing feedback by defence secretary Ben Wallace on Monday, as he dispatched an additional 350 British troops to Poland, the prime minister warned Vladimir Putin that invading Ukraine would backfire and solely serve to strengthen Nato.
There couldn’t “be a extra compelling argument for the need of Nato than the sight of Russian tanks invading a European nation as soon as once more”, Mr Johnson wrote in The Occasions, warning the Kremlin “its goals wouldn’t be served by inflicting nonetheless better destruction and bloodshed on Ukraine”.
However following a five-hour dinner assembly in Moscow together with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, the Russian president warned that, if Ukraine joins Nato and seeks to retake Crimea – which Russia annexed in 2014 – then European nations “will routinely be drawn into navy battle” with Russia “past [their] will”, including: “There can be no winners.”
As the primary western chief hosted in Moscow since tensions intensified late final yr, Mr Macron is because of communicate to the Russian chief once more after a visit to Ukraine tomorrow.
“The following few days can be decisive and would require intensive discussions which we are going to pursue collectively,” the French president informed reporters after his meal with Mr Putin.
Mr Putin additionally appeared tentatively constructive in regards to the assembly, saying: “A lot of his concepts, proposals, that are in all probability nonetheless too early to speak about, I feel it’s fairly doable to make the idea of our additional joint steps.”
French media reported that, previous to the assembly, Mr Macron prompt {that a} “Finlandisation” of Ukraine was “one of many fashions on the desk” – a reference to how Finland maintained its independence from the Soviet Union in the course of the Chilly Warfare on the situation that it remained strictly impartial.
Mr Putin additionally urged Ukraine to adjust to the Minsk agreements – brokered by France and Germany in 2015 – which embrace an purpose to finish the separatist conflict by Russian-speakers within the Donbas area, but in addition include features some specialists imagine are incompatible with Ukraine’s existence as a sovereign nation.
However Mr Macron mentioned the independence of Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus – the place Russia is conducting navy workout routines – should be preserved, saying: “Collectively … I’m positive we are going to get a consequence, even when it’s not straightforward.”
In the meantime, Mr Putin accused the US and Nato of “bypassing” its calls for final month, however mentioned: “I don’t suppose that that is the place our dialogue ends. Now we are going to formulate a solution, our imaginative and prescient, and ship it to Washington and Brussels.”
Their feedback got here shortly after a press convention held within the White Home by Joe Biden and Olaf Scholz, the brand new German chancellor, who appeared to strengthen Berlin’s dedication to derailing the multibillion-pound Nord Stream 2 gasoline pipeline between Russia and Germany within the occasion that Russia invades Ukraine.
The US president informed reporters that if Russian troops cross Ukraine’s border, “then there can be not a Nord Stream 2”, saying: “We are going to deliver it to an finish.”
Whereas Mr Scholz didn’t use the pipeline’s title, he pressured that US and Germany would “act collectively collectively” to impose extreme sanctions within the occasion of an invasion, saying: “There received’t be any measures wherein we’ve a special strategy.”
Switching to English for emphasis, he added that the US and Germany “can be united”.
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However questions have been raised over Mr Scholz’s dedication to the Baltic Sea pipeline menace, after he as soon as once more did not explicitly title Nord Stream 2 as among the many financial deterrents on the desk in a later interview with CNN, merely repeating his vow to stay aligned with the US.
Mr Scholz informed the broadcaster he didn’t know whether or not Ukraine’s president Volodymr Zelensky had cancelled a deliberate assembly on Monday with overseas minister Annalena Baerbock because of Germany’s stance on the pipeline, as prompt to CNN by one Kiev supply – versus the scheduling error blamed formally.
It got here after a batch of the three,000 American forces pledged by Washington to bolster Nato’s jap flank arrived in Poland on Sunday.
At a press convention together with his Polish counterpart, Mariusz Błaszczak, the UK defence secretary Ben Wallace mentioned the 350 troops additionally pledged by the UK have been being dispatched within the “spirit of solidarity”. Poland can be dealing with a disaster by itself border with Belarus, whose chief Alexander Lukashenko is an ally of Mr Putin.
Writing in The Occasions on Monday night time, Mr Johnson mentioned Britain was additionally contemplating deploying royal air drive Hurricane fighters and royal navy warships to guard southeastern Europe.
“British sanctions and different measures can be prepared for any renewed Russian assault,” the prime minister mentioned.
Highlighting the confusion over Mr Scholz’s pipeline stance, Mr Johnson additionally welcomed “Germany’s assertion that Nord Stream 2 could be reconsidered within the occasion of an incursion”, and mentioned his authorities would ask MPs for brand spanking new powers to widen potential sanctions on companies linked to the Kremlin.
On Sunday, Labour shadow ministers Rachel Reeves and David Lammy wrote to their counterparts in authorities, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, urging the Tories to return cash from donors with hyperlinks to Russia, alleged to quantity to £1.93m since Mr Johnson assumed energy in 2019.
