Vladimir Putin is “hell bent” on invading Ukraine and he will not stop there, the UK’s Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said.
Truss said it is “highly likely” Russian forces will attempt to take Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, in the coming days she faced calls for tougher sanctions from the UK.
After stinging criticism that the Tory government had not done enough when Russian troops stepped over into the breakaway Ukrainian republics, Truss vowed to “escalate” sanctions and bring in more tough measures if Putin launches a full scale invasion.
Truss said currently we had seen “all the precursors” to a full invasion.
Asked what would constitute a “full invasion”, she said it meant troops crossing the border.
When it was suggested to her this has already happened, Truss responded: “That is frankly ambiguous at this stage.”
David Lammy, her Labour opposite number, said that Putin would not take the UK sanctions seriously so long as nothing was done about the ties between Russian oligarchs in the UK and the funding of the Tory party.
Parliament’s security and intelligence committeee previously warned of the influence Russian donors resident in the UK are having on politics and civic life.
Lammy said there was “too much connection between Russian oligarchs” and donations to the Conservative Party.
Speaking to the BBC Lammy said: “We think that they should hand back £2 million.”
Asked if Labour was making accusations of corruption, Lammy said: “This isn’t just the allegation of the Labour Party. This is the allegation of our intelligence committee and the Russia report.”
“This is the allegation of the Committee of the Senate of the US Representatives who also investigated Russian interference and raised serious issues about the interference of Russian oligarchs not just in our country, but in Europe.”
“So, this is a long-standing issue. This is a line in the sand.”
He added that the sanctions so far had been seen as weak and ineffectual.
He said: “Frankly, it’s not clear entirely what’s going on. I mean, I just think this was a moment when Britain had to step up and demonstrate certain kinds of seriousness. It hasn’t happened.”
Boris Johnson will face MPs at Prime Minister’s Questions at midday on Wednesday amid growing demands from his own MP and opposition parties for more action.
It is likely that the Prime Minister will announce further arms deliveries to Ukraine and respond to Labour demands to exclude Russia from the SWIFT banking payments system which guarantees international money transfers.
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