What Does War In Ukraine Actually Mean For The UK? HuffPost UK Politics

Conscription requires young men and women to serve for a limited time in uniform. It means that some of the population will have had some military training - and can then be assigned to reserve units should war break out. There is a sense in the upper echelons of the British military that many politicians and most of the public have not grasped the threat they see. It is the duty of the military to analyse that threat, and they still might be proved wrong. But European nations closer to Russian borders appear to be taking it more seriously.

• Last week, another senior Nato military chief said countries needed to be on alert "and expect the unexpected".
• 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.
• President Putin castigated Kyiv's Western supporters for making anti-Russian "threats" - and warned that any threat to Russia's territorial integrity would be met with whatever weapons the Kremlin deemed necessary.
• Some autocratic leaders are looking to see how robustly the West resists attempts to undermine the territorial integrity of a sovereign nation.
• The man it named as a possible pro-Russian candidate for president, former Ukrainian MP Yevhen Murayev, seems to have dismissed the allegation, but this morning said the country needed new leaders.
• Europe itself could restrict future gas flows by abandoning the Nord Stream 2 pipeline which would run under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany.

A prominent war expert says the US is on the verge of lessening its support for, or even withdrawing from, NATO - with potentially catastrophic consequences for Europe. A senior European Union official has denied member states are discussing financial coercion to force Hungary to agree on financing for Ukraine. Russia initially denied sending conscript soldiers to Ukraine, but several officers were disciplined after cases came to light of conscripts being forced to sign contracts. Russia could in theory mobilise some 25 million people for military service, but that is not yet being considered.

Ukraine: Foreign Secretary visits Kyiv in first overseas trip

After an uneasy peace with Ukraine, Moscow has sent forces into the Baltics, clashing with British troops based there to protect Nato’s eastern flank. He has been the subject of international sanctions and an Interpol "red notice" issued at the request of the Ukrainian government, for charges including embezzlement and misappropriation. The man it named as a possible pro-Russian candidate for president, former Ukrainian MP Yevhen Murayev, seems to have dismissed the allegation, but this morning said the country needed new leaders. He also wants Nato to abandon military exercises and stop sending weapons to eastern Europe, seeing this as a direct threat to Russia's security.

• The latest move by Russia has drawn international condemnation, with US President Joe Biden denouncing Russia's military action as an "unprovoked and unjustified attack", declaring "the world will hold Russia accountable".
• Russian military vehicles are reported to have breached Ukraine's border in a number of places, in the north, south and east, including from Belarus.
• Russian-backed rebels control areas of eastern Ukraine near Russia's borders in a conflict which has cost an estimated 14,000 lives.
• "We live in an unstable world. If rich counties fail to support vulnerable countries in tackling climate impacts and in their clean energy transition, it will only fuel a spiral of instability."
• Since the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014, the UK has sanctioned around 183 individuals under the Russia sanctions regime.
• A small group of around 18 Conservative MPs want the UK to increase its own fossil fuel supply by boosting North Sea fossil fuel production and lift the fracking moratorium.

Stung, perhaps, by suggestions that while a crisis was boiling in Europe, the foreign and defence secretaries were both in Australia, the UK government does seem to be trying to show that it's getting a grip. Russia has denied it is planning any attack but Mr Putin has issued demands to the West, including that Ukraine be prevented from joining the Nato military alliance. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said there was "a very serious risk" of invasion but there would be "severe economic consequences", including sanctions, if Russia took that step. The prime minister also sought to reassure the British public, pledging to do "everything to keep our country safe" and work with allies "for however long it takes" to restore Ukraine's sovereignty and independence. Mr Putin has accused the West of ignoring Russia's demands to prevent Ukraine from joining the western Nato military alliance and offer Moscow security guarantees. Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg criticised Russia's "reckless" attack on Ukraine and said despite weeks of tireless international diplomacy, Russia had chosen "the path of aggression".

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Mr Johnson promised to hit Russia with a “massive” package of sanctions designed to “hobble” the economy in Moscow. Ukraine has said its goal for the talks is an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian forces from the country. If war broke out in Ukraine and Russian forces occupied large swathes of the country, many civilians might flee. 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. In 1994, the UK - along with the US - signed a memorandum at an international conference in Budapest promising "to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine".

Mr Prystaiko said the question was not whether Russia would invade Ukraine but whether it would be a "full-scale invasion" or something smaller, adding that Russia had already been in Crimea for almost eight years. But https://euronewstop.co.uk/where-is-poland-in-relation-to-ukraine.html to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, said he believed Russia was trying to install a pro-Moscow leader. He later wrote in a post on Facebook that "the time of pro-Western and pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine is gone forever". Responding to the claim that he was a potential Kremlin candidate to lead Ukraine, he told the Observer newspaper that the Foreign Office "seems confused".

• Belarus allowed Russian troops to enter its country to access Ukraine's northern border as part of the invasion.
• He announced plans to send army to defend its borders in response to "possible disturbances and provocations due to large military forces massed in Russia and Belarus".
• After an uneasy peace with Ukraine, Moscow has sent forces into the Baltics, clashing with British troops based there to protect Nato’s eastern flank.
• There is a sense in the upper echelons of the British military that many politicians and most of the public have not grasped the threat they see.

The prime minister did confirm that 1,000 more troops would be put on alert in the UK if Russia were to invade although Downing Street is likely to follow the lead set by Nato. Russia has gradually built up a force of close to 190,000 troops around the Ukrainian border over the last few weeks but maintained that it had no intention to invade – until last night. It is regrettable - and sadly predictable - that we must gather today to condemn Russia’s latest wave of aerial attacks against the Ukrainian people.

Is UK conscription for a citizen army a realistic plan?

Gen Sir Patrick, who will stand down as Chief of the General Staff in six months, will make his speech at the International Armoured Vehicles expo in Twickenham. General Sir Patrick Sanders will stress the need for the Government to “mobilise the nation” in the event of war with Russia in a speech on Wednesday. He said the security situation in Europe was without precedent since the fall of the Iron Curtain. The war that erupted in eastern Ukraine in 2014 has already left 14,000 dead and an estimated 1.4 million displaced.

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. 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. He announced plans to send army to defend its borders in response to "possible disturbances and provocations due to large military forces massed in Russia and Belarus". On Tuesday, the chief of Norway’s armed forces said the country must increase defence spending in the face of a potential war with Russia within three years, following its neighbour Sweden in urging citizens to brace for conflict.

Officials said there had been no specific threats to British diplomats but about half of the staff working in Kyiv will return to the UK. The US has ordered relatives of its embassy staff to leave, saying an invasion could come "at any time". Earlier, No 10 said there were no plans to send British combat troops to defend Ukraine, however. Russia considers the alliance as a threat, and is demanding legal guarantees that it will not expand further east, including into Ukraine. But the US has said the issue at stake is Russian aggression, not Nato expansion.