As cars queued on Ukraine's border with Moldova, the country's pro-EU president, Maia Sandu said she was declaring a state of emergency and was prepared to give help to tens of thousands of Ukrainians. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda also said he was signing a state of emergency to be approved by parliament. He said the goal was demilitarisation and "denazification" of Ukraine.
Talk of wider war in Europe and the potential need for mass mobilisation or a "citizen army" may sound alarming. But the head of the British Army Gen Sir Patrick Sanders is not alone in issuing a national call to prepare for a major conflict on European soil. The Prime Minister also suggested Britain could provide more military support to Ukraine as legislation to allow for tougher UK sanctions against Russia were expected to come into force today. Russia wants assurances that Ukraine will never be allowed to join Nato; that Nato members will have no permanent forces or infrastructure based in Ukraine; and for a halt to military exercises near Russia's border. Western intelligence estimates that Russia already has up to 100,000 troops positioned near to the border with Ukraine, along with tanks and artillery.
BBC News Services
Hours earlier Ukraine's president had asked how a people who lost eight million of its citizens fighting Nazis could support Nazism. 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. Mr Zelensky said Russia had positioned almost 200,000 troops and thousands of combat vehicles on Ukraine's borders ahead of Thursday's invasion. 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. Initial reports of casualties included Ukrainian civilians and soldiers, and Russian troops.
- Russia's ambitions, he said, were not just about seizing territory but "about defeating our system and way of life politically, psychologically and symbolically".
- Many analysts fear war in Ukraine could potentially spill over into other European countries.
- Pictures posted on social media showed emergency crews battling a blaze.
- A Conservative MP has warned that Vladimir Putin may be planning ways to attack the UK and Nato allies, following reports that a fleet of spy ships is mapping wind farms and communication cables in the North Sea.
Convoys 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. Russian military convoys have crossed from Belarus into Ukraine's northern Chernihiv region, and from Russia into the Sumy region, which is also in the north, Ukraine's border guard service (DPSU) said. BBC correspondents heard loud bangs in the capital Kyiv, as well as Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. 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. Boris Johnson has made clear the UK will not send troops to Ukraine if Russia launches a full-scale invasion, but there are other ways of aiding the European ally. 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.
Inside the British Army drill for war with Russia - on the streets of Rutland
Ambassador Neil Holland condemns Russia's air attacks this week on Kyiv and Kharkiv, as well as the spate of attacks on Ukraine over the past month. The threats facing Europe today are too pressing for our military to be reduced to this state. https://euronewstop.co.uk/what-does-china-think-of-russia-and-ukraine.html must be for ministers to end the wokery and get back to the infinitely more serious business of preparing for war. Europe’s most divisive energy project, Nord Stream 2 bypasses the traditional gas transit nation of Ukraine by running along the bed of the Baltic Sea. Putin has also sent his military on a “peacekeeping mission” to Ukraine, meaning that Russia will formally occupy sovereign Ukrainian territory for a second time following the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
A victorious Russian army at the end of the Ukraine war, the ISW says, would be combat experienced and considerably larger than its pre-2022 forces. They say that Ukraine - with Western support - has destroyed nearly 90% of the Russian army that invaded in February 2022, according to US intelligence sources. A nuclear strike on any UK city would kill everyone within a 1.2-mile radius instantly. Anyone exposed within a 6.8-mile radius of the impact would almost certainly suffer third-degree burns, while hundreds of thousands would be likely to die due to radiation fallout.
European security
This could see states like Poland and the Baltics decide to aid Ukraine on their own, which "might leave NATO's eastern front vulnerable and cause a crisis within the EU and European NATO". A senior European Union official has denied member states are discussing financial coercion to force Hungary to agree on financing for Ukraine. As the war approaches its second anniversary, severe weapons shortages and worrying signs of waning Western support are undermining Ukraine’s war effort. This may lead Putin to conclude that he can still emerge victorious in his confrontation with the West, which is bound to encourage further provocations in future.
Western countries have condemned the threat and are likely to impose sanctions on Moscow this week. And they have made clear that they will not send combat troops to Ukraine. True Russian cyberwarfare capabilities have proved something of a damp squib in Ukraine.
At the outset of the conflict, the company said it was stopping investment in Russia, where it has a large worker base, and was ending exports from its Russian factory to other parts of the world. However, research by the BBC has discovered the company is still recruiting new sales agents in Russia, with recruits offered prizes, cash bonuses and even holidays for hitting targets, the broadcaster reports. 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. If the US abandons the military alliance, it will fall to European countries to ensure a Ukrainian victory, Mr OBrien says. European countries have largely outsourced much of their military capacity and thinking on strategy and security to the States through NATO.
- About 10 civilians are believed to have been killed, including six in an air strike in Brovary near the capital Kyiv.
- But the alliance has also made clear that it believes that Ukraine has a right to make its own decisions as a sovereign nation, and it is not willing to give Russia a veto on Ukraine's future.
- Preliminary information did not show any casualties in the attacks, but Russia and Ukraine have increased their air attacks on each other’s territory in recent months, targeting critical military, energy and transport infrastructure.
- Despite this, the UK and other allies have increased numbers of troops in NATO countries surrounding Ukraine.
- Western intelligence officials concluded that the incident fitted into a pattern of Russia widening its military activities to involve attacks on infrastructure underpinning Western economic and energy security.
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. The overall effect means Finland can muster one of Europe's largest armies. The size of its active armed forces is only 19,000 personnel, but it can call on another 238,000 reserves. Finland, Nato's newest member and a country which has an 800-mile border with Russia, has wider conscription.
- Labour's Keir Starmer and many Conservative backbenchers have called for further military options to be explored.
- He can be expected to put pro-Moscow politicians in charge in Kyiv while eliminating opponents and fixing elections (as in Russia).
- First, Putin has indicated that he questions Ukraine’s right to statehood, calling modern Ukraine an artificial construct of the Soviet Union.
- What would happen if Russia decided to target the UK with nuclear weapons?
- A large diversion of citizens to military duty would leave gaps in the workforce to be filled, be it guarding food warehouses or building trenches and bomb shelters.
Russia wants Nato to make a legally binding promise that Ukraine will never become a member. It also wants Nato to withdraw its forces from most Eastern European countries. The memorandum is not a treaty and lawyers dispute whether it is legally enforceable.