Call on UK to financially support Ukraine as Russian invasion ‘imminent’

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The time for diplomacy isn’t over yet, but it’s running out, ITV News’ Lewis Warner reports

British government officials have said the UK should prepare to give Ukraine financial support because Russia may “imminently” invade its neighbor.

The warnings come as tens of thousands of Russian troops are stationed near Ukraine. The Kremlin has kept the United Kingdom, the United States and other allies guessing about their next moves in the worst security crisis to emerge between Moscow and the West since the Cold War. Amid fears of an imminent attack on Ukraine, Russia upped the ante by announcing more military exercises in the region. It also refused to rule out the possibility of a military deployment in the Caribbean, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has communicated with leaders opposed to the West.

Russian troops mass on Ukrainian border Credit: Associated Press

Tobias Ellwood, chair of the British House of Commons defense committee, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Putin was taking advantage of the “weak West”. “We see formations of forces ready to fight. He has already cornered himself because so much effort has been put into this. He also understands that he will never be that strong again to take advantage of the weakness of the West. I suspect an invasion is imminent now.”

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Russia’s flexing of military muscle reflects a bold attempt by the Kremlin to halt decades of NATO expansion after the end of the Cold War. In talks with the United States, Russia demands legally binding guarantees that the alliance will not include Ukraine and other former Soviet states. It also wants NATO to withdraw its forces from Central and Eastern European countries that have joined the alliance since the 1990s. Putin has described Ukraine’s NATO membership and other countries, as well as the proliferation of alliance weapons there, as a red line for Moscow. He warned that he would order unspecified “military-technical measures” if the demands were not met.

To underscore the urgency of Russia’s security demands, Putin cited NATO exercises with the Ukrainian military, the increasingly frequent visits of NATO warships in the Black Sea and US bomber flights near Crimea. He said that by setting up training centers in Ukraine, Western powers could establish a military foothold there even without joining NATO. “We have nowhere to fall back,” Putin said. “They have reached the point where we simply have to tell them: STOP!”

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Russia, which annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014, has denied it plans to attack its neighbour. But last year, Putin issued a stark warning that Ukraine’s attempt to regain control of areas in the east controlled by Russian-backed separatists would have “serious consequences for the Ukrainian state”. Putin has repeatedly emphasized that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people,” and says that large parts of Ukrainian territory are historical parts of Russia – arbitrarily given to Ukraine by communist leaders during the Soviet era. More than 14,000 people have been killed in nearly eight years of fighting in the Donbass industrial region, the heart of Ukraine, where a Moscow-backed insurgency erupted shortly after the annexation of Crimea. A 2015 peace deal brokered by France and Germany helped end large-scale battles, but a political settlement faltered, and frequent skirmishes continued along the strained line of communication. Military build-up resumed near Ukraine in the fall, as Ukrainian and Western officials warned that the increased concentration of forces could herald a multi-pronged Russian offensive.

The head of the UK’s Foreign Affairs Committee said on Saturday that Ukraine’s military force needs to be backed by UK money.

Tom Tugendhat told BBC Breakfast: “I would like to see each of us go further, because one of the things that delays the ability of the Ukrainian people to mobilize their armed forces to face any such invasion is that it has a significant impact on any country’s economy.” We need to be prepared to support the Ukrainian people financially… and it could be with loan guarantees and things like that.”

Ukraine is strengthening its borders Credit: AP

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Minister accepted an invitation to meet Ben Wallace, his British counterpart, and a senior defense source said: “The defense minister is glad that Russia accepted the invitation to speak with his counterpart. Given the last bilateral defense between our two countries that happened in London in 2013, the Defense Minister offered The Russian Sergei Shoigu will meet in Moscow instead. The foreign minister has been clear that he will explore all ways to achieve stability and resolve the Ukrainian crisis. We are in contact with the Russian government.”

Russia has also worked to strengthen alliances with countries opposed to the West. Putin has hosted Iran’s hard-line president for talks on expanding cooperation and is scheduled to travel to the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, where he will hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. In recent days, Putin has also spoken by phone with the leaders of Nicaragua and Venezuela, and a Russian government plane was recently seen sailing between Cuba and Venezuela in a possible harbinger of the Kremlin’s upcoming moves.

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