The UK and its Western allies are ready to launch sanctions against Russia “the moment the first Russian toecap crosses further into Ukrainian territory,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
Speaking at a joint press conference in Kyiv on Feb. 1 with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Johnson said the UK and allies “will always stand up for freedom and democracy and Ukrainian sovereignty in the face of aggression.”
He said Moscow must understand there will be “automaticity” in the way the sanctions will be applied, saying, “The minute there is a further incursion into sovereign Ukrainian territory they will apply.”
Johnson said the build-up of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border was possibly the greatest act of hostility “towards the Ukraine in our lifetimes.”
But any conflict would come at a high cost for Russia. “The Ukrainian army will fight. They will put a very, very, very fierce and bloody resistance and I think that parents, mothers in Russia should reflect on that fact,” said the prime minister.
Johnson denied the threat has been exaggerated by the United States and the UK, stressing that intelligence shows a “clear and present danger” for Ukraine, with “preparations for all kinds of operations that are consistent with an imminent military campaign.”
The prime minister said “the whole European security architecture” is under threat when Russia is “holding a gun to the head of the Ukraine.”
He said Russian President Vladimir Putin is attempting to “redraw the security map of Europe” and to “impose a new Yalta, new zones of influence.”
A joint statement issued following Johnson’s meeting with Zelensky outlined how the UK stands “shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine in the face of ongoing Russian aggression.”
“The leaders warned that any further Russian incursion in Ukraine would be a massive strategic mistake and have a stark humanitarian cost,” said the statement.
It said Ukraine and the UK would “work together to strengthen Ukraine’s security and ability to defend itself.”
Also on Feb. 1, Britain’s Chief of the Defence Staff Adm. Sir Tony Radakin updated ministers on the situation in Ukraine.
He told a Cabinet meeting that “a significant proportion of Russia’s land combat power was now gathered on the western border, coupled with deterrence operations such as military exercises on a scale never seen before.”
He told ministers the action “fitted into a pattern of coercion and intimidation that sought to undermine the values and principles of the West.”
