Martial law - which means the military takes control temporarily - has been imposed across the whole of Ukraine and traffic jams built up as people fled the capital city of Kyiv. He also tried to reassure the British public by promising to do everything to keep our country safe and work with allies for however long it takes to restore Ukraine's independence. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the UK cannot and will not just look away at Russia's hideous and barbaric attack on Ukraine. President Putin recognises the independence of the two Russian-backed separatists areas in eastern Ukraine and says troops will be sent to support them. Some in Kyiv are hunkering down in the city's metro stations and air raid shelters, while others are trying to escape. Downing Street defended the UK government’s spending on defence, saying Britain had been Washington’s “partner of choice” in its strikes against Houthi rebels in the Red Sea because of its “military strength”. 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. https://euronewstop.co.uk/why-is-the-uk-interested-in-ukraine.html says it wants to spend 2.5% of national income on defence - but has still not said when. Britain to send patrol ship to Guyana amid Venezuela border dispute This included £2.5 billion in military support and a historic long-term security agreement. This brings the United Kingdom’s total package of support to Ukraine to approximately £12 billion. We remain deeply humbled by the bravery and the resilience of the Ukrainian people and their determination to win. But all of the measures against Russia will have negative impacts for the West too. The Democratic president said in a statement that the policies proposed would “be the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we’ve ever had in our country”. Andrey Kelin told Times Radio on Friday that any measure the UK took against Moscow would be met with an equal response, but he refused to give further detail on how this could look. This is a grave moment for the security of Europe. Russia's unprovoked and unjustified attack on Ukraine is putting countless lives at risk, he said. This febrile mood has prompted growing warnings that Europe could find itself involved in a war in Russia, even though at present Russia is embroiled in Ukraine. But as Ukraine is not a Nato member state, “the alliance will not provide military support in the form of troops”, Oliver Wright said in The Times. The government has already announced a package of sanctions against Russia, targeting Kremlin-linked billionaires, banks and companies. However, those sanctions are “now expected to be significantly expanded”, said The Times. Biden to host German chancellor to discuss Ukraine aid Ukrainian banks and government websites were hit with a spate of cyber attacks last week prior to the deployment of Russian troops to Luhansk and Donetsk. Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation said the attacks have continued since the full invasion. The US is planning to station nuclear weapons in the UK for the first time in 15 years amid a growing threat from Russia, according to a report. Warheads three times as strong as the Hiroshima bomb would be located at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk under the proposals, the Telegraph reported. On Friday, No 10 defended the Government’s military spending, pointing out that “the UK is the second biggest defence spender in Nato and the largest in Europe”. Though that scenario was rejected by Downing St as a “not helpful” hypothetical, other European countries such as Latvia and Sweden have been reviving forms of military service, and Pistorius said in December he was “looking at all options”. Grant Shapps, the British defence secretary, used even stronger language, arguing the cold war peace dividend was over and that the UK and its allies were “moving from a postwar to a prewar world” with idealism replaced by “hard-headed realism”. Last month, the European Union paid the final instalment of a multibillion-euro support package to Ukraine to help keep its economy afloat. The European Commission has proposed to provide Ukraine with €50bn ($55bn), with 26 of the 27 nation bloc’s leaders endorsing this plan at a summit before that last payout. Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, is considered to be Putin’s closest ally in the EU. The UK government's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine Prime Minster Boris Johnson says that after 4am UK time he spoke to President Zelensky of Ukraine to offer the support of the UK. Even though an attack of some kind has been expected for several months there is still a widespread sense of shock about what has happened around the world. Russian forces launched a major military assault on Ukraine on Thursday morning, with reports of missile strikes and explosions near major cities. Refusal can mean a jail sentence, though there is the option of civilian service out of uniform too. It said Nato allies were sending additional ships and fighter jets to eastern Europe to reinforce defences and increase deterrence, in response to the continuing build-up of Russian forces. However, Russian forces have suffered heavy personnel and armoured vehicle losses, frequently caused by Ukrainian uncrewed aerial vehicle munitions. He said the UK was leading on creating a package of economic sanctions against Russia and was supplying defensive weaponry to Ukraine. But all of the measures against Russia will have negative impacts for the West too. The price of British gas for next-day delivery shot up by 40 per cent, to £280 per therm. Opposition leaders including Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer criticised the initial package of sanctions for being too soft. This is because Nato uses a system of collective security, whereby its independent member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party. Ukraine said on Friday that Russia had returned the bodies of 77 soldiers, the AFP news agency reports, days after the crash of a Russian military transport plane threw doubt on the future of such exchanges. A 13-year-old girl died today from injuries sustained in the Russian shelling of her village in the Kharkiv oblast earlier this month, said Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional state administration. Joe Biden is pressing Congress to embrace a bipartisan Senate deal to pair border enforcement measures with aid for Ukraine. Only aircraft deployed to protect energy facilities, or those carrying top Russian or foreign officials, will be allowed to fly with special permission in the designated zones, according to the Vedomosti daily newspaper. A frank and constructive dialogue is expected to improve relations between states, the Ukrainian president's office said on its official channel on the Telegram messaging app alongside a photo of Mr Szijjarto, Mr Kuleba and Mr Yermak. Mr Szijarto will be in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba and presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak. The diminishing prospects for a deal leave congressional leaders with no clear way to approve a White House request for $110bn in emergency funding for Ukraine, Israel, immigration enforcement and national security needs. But the House speaker, Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said the legislation would be “dead on arrival in the House” in its current form, according to a letter to Republican lawmakers. Downing Street has ruled out any move towards conscription, saying the army service will remain voluntary. In its latest intelligence report, the UK Ministry of Defence said Ukrainian counter-attacks were holding Russians back from taking full control of Avdiivka. 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. With major military packages trapped under political disagreements in the US and European Union, Ukraine is having to adapt, and look inwards. The documents revealing the decision to station nuclear warheads in the UK were posted on a US government procurement website. The term “surety” is used by the Pentagon to refer to the need to keep nuclear weapons safe when they are not being used. “This represents a continuation of Russia’s minor incremental gains whilst Ukraine focuses on active defence,” the report reads. The ‘global’ in Britain was reflected in an ambition to more deeply engage in the Indo-Pacific, to adapt to China’s growing power and climate and global health objectives. Following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, a Pentagon review of the US’s nuclear posture said it served as a “stark reminder of nuclear risk in contemporary conflict” and warned of “nuclear threats to the homeland and US allies and partners”. He chaired an emergency Cobra meeting earlier and will give a televised statement later on the UK's response to Russia's unprovoked attack. Downing Street said the leaders agreed that if a further Russian incursion took place, allies must enact swift retributive responses including an unprecedented package of sanctions. It's promising to deploy British forces to eastern European members of the Nato military alliance if Russian troops cross Ukraine's borders. The UK's defence secretary has also warned that we need to be prepared for a war. In his first major speech on defence, Grant Shapps said the country was moving from a post war to a pre-war world. “If this step is ever made, we will view it as escalation, as a step toward escalation that would take things to a direction that is quite opposite to addressing the pressing issue of pulling all nuclear weapons out of European countries,” she said. Following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, a Pentagon review of the US’s nuclear posture said it served as a “stark reminder of nuclear risk in contemporary conflict” and warned of “nuclear threats to the homeland and US allies and partners”.
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