Putin’s hideous and barbarous venture
BORIS Johnson last night called on the free world to unite in ensuring that Vladimir Putin’s “hideous and barbarous venture” to seize Ukraine ends in total failure.
The Prime Minister labelled the Russian tyrant “a bloodstained aggressor” as dozens were killed when his missiles rained down on cities across the beleaguered country and columns of tanks broke through the border.
On Europe’s darkest day since the Second World War, Russian armoured divisions launched a rapid offensive intended to capture the Ukrainian capital Kiev as helicopter gunships attacked nearby Hostomel airport.
At least 57 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians were killed in the initial battles, with 169 wounded, the country’s health ministry reported last night.
At Westminster, Mr Johnson told MPs that Putin “will never be able to cleanse the blood of Ukraine from his hands” – and warned Russia’s president may face international war crimes charges over the invasion.
He described the onslaught as a “hideous and barbarous venture” and urged Western allies to combine in a mission “diplomatically, politically, economically – and eventually, militarily” – to ensure Putin fails.
To punish and isolate his Moscow regime and its super-rich cronies, the PM announced the “largest and most severe package of economic sanctions that Russia has ever seen.
Mission
“We will continue on a remorseless mission to squeeze Russia from the global economy piece by piece, day by day and week by week.” Mr Johnson warned: “An expansionist power, deploying one of the world’s most formidable military machines, is trying to redraw the map of Europe in blood and conquer an independent state by force of arms. “It is vital for the safety of every nation that Putin’s squalid venture should ultimately fail and be seen to fail.” Measures include freezing the UK assets of all Russian banks, a swathe of export bans and a landing bar on planes from Russia’s national airline Aeroflot. Targeted sanctions will blitz 100 individuals, firms and agencies. Five more oligarchs including a businessman married to Putin’s daughter were hit with travel bans. A diplomatic source said: “These are people who have international lifestyles. They come to Harrods to shop, they stay in our best hotels when they like, they send their children to our best public schools, and that is what’s being stopped.
“These people are essentially persona non grata in every major Western European capital. That really bites.” British diplomats were also urging EU leaders to block Russia from the Swift global payments system, to cripple its finances.
The world had watched in horror yesterday as Europe’s largest postwar conflict erupted.
Putin’s missile and air strikes hit military sites and towns from early morning. Tanks and tens of thousands of troops supported by attack helicopters and jets swarmed into Ukraine over its borders with Russia and Putin’s puppet Belarus. A vast human river of refugees fled Kiev to head West, sparking fears of a humanitarian crisis in central Europe as Ukrainian troops fought back fiercely, shooting down Russian aircraft, destroying tanks and inflicting casualties despite being hugely outgunned and outnumbered.
Mr Johnson was woken by aides soon after 4am to be informed the invasion had begun.
He spoke to Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, warning him he may need to seek sanctuary in the West, before convening the first of two meetings of the Government’s Cobra emergency committee yesterday and calling world leaders for crisis talks.
The PM said in an address to the nation, left: “This act of wanton and reckless aggression is an attack not just on Ukraine. It is an attack on democracy and freedom in eastern Europe and around the world.”
He told MPs last night that Putin will “stand condemned in the eyes of the world and of history”, adding the time for negotiation was over as the Kremlin was a “pariah” regime.
“I am driven to conclude that Putin was always determined to attack his neighbour, no matter what we did. Now we see him for what he is: a bloodstained aggressor who believes in imperial conquest.”
Mr Johnson said the UK and its allies had a “clear” mission to ensure “this hideous and barbarous venture of Vladimir Putin must end in failure. We will counter the Kremlin’s blizzard of lies and disinformation
by telling the truth about Putin’s war of choice and war of aggression.
“We will work with our allies on the urgent need to protect other European countries that are not members of Nato and could become targets of Putin’s playbook of subversion and aggression.”
He added the UK is working with allies to set up a “particular international war crimes tribunal for those involved in war crimes in the Ukraine theatre”. He added in the Commons: “Not just any Russian combatant but anyone who sends a Russian into battle to kill innocent Ukrainians.”
But in a message to the Russian public, the Prime Minister said: “I cannot believe that this horror is being done in your name or that you really want the pariah status that these actions will bring to the Putin regime.
“And to our Ukrainian friends in this moment of agony, I say ‘We are with you, and we are on your side. Your right to choose your own destiny is a right that the United Kingdom and our allies will always defend.’”
Mr Johnson said his Government will do everything possible to safeguard Britain from repercussions for the cost of living. “We of course stand ready to protect our country from any threats, including in cyberspace.”
The PM spoke with US President Joe Biden and other leaders of the G7 group of industrialised democracies yesterday plus Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg, telling them Putin was trying to “subjugate the people of Ukraine using extreme violence”.
A No10 spokesman said: “He urged fellow leaders to work together as one to do everything in their power to isolate Putin politically, economically and militarily.”
The G7 leaders said: “This unprovoked and completely unjustified attack on the democratic state of Ukraine... constitutes a serious violation of international law and a grave breach of the United Nations Charter.
“We call on all partners and members of the international community to condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms.”
NOT since September 1, 1939 when Hitler’s forces swept into Poland has Europe witnessed a day like yesterday when Putin’s tanks rolled into Ukraine.
An era of hard-won peace and stability which began with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and break-up of the Soviet Union in 1990 has come to a shattering end.
The Russian atrocity in invading a sovereign democratic state with no other motive than that of an imperialist land grab and subjugation of a free people marks the emergence of a dark period in history.
The welcome united response from the international community mirrored by the political unity across parties in the House of Commons shows the collective disgust with Vladimir Putin’s despotic regime.
That said, the flaccid response and statement by US President Joe Biden was disappointing. His weakness last year resulted in the Afghan debacle and at this time we need firm and dynamic leadership. He needs to up his game significantly.
As with Caesar crossing the Rubicon in ancient Rome, the Russian military crossing of the Dnieper river on the border between Russia and Ukraine is a moment of no return. There can be no more toleration of the authoritarian rule from Moscow.
Russia must now be considered a pariah state and the new wave of sanctions, tougher than any announced before, is a good first step. Its economy must be crushed and the military starved of cash.Allies of Putin’s must also be brought to book and feel the economic pain, especially those hiding in London.
There must be an end to any reliance on Russian coal and gas, even if that means we must step back from some of our Net Zero commitments for now to produce more of our own. Energy security is paramount in these uncertain times.
Finally, there must be a review of our military investment. The belief that Europe is now stable and unlikely to face a war again has proven to be wrong.
While some are describing Putin as “a Fascist” we need to remember that this was a man who cut his teeth heading the KGB in the Soviet Union’s Communist regime. The horrors of those extremes on the Left and Right lead to similar grim outcomes.
Russia is a mafia state run by a regime of oligarchs led by an assassin in a suit. We must be clear that the Russian people, oppressed by this evil man, are also victims. Russian mothers as well as Ukrainian ones will lose children in the coming days for a war that only one man wanted.
We should salute anti-war protesters who gathered in Moscow in defiance of this conflict. At this time of crisis there can be no compromise.The world must face this dictator down and Britain must play its part with our allies in achieving that.