Ukraine is urging Britain to turn the screw on Vladimir Putin and force him to the negotiating table by Christmas.
As Ukrainian forces push back Russian troops and recapture 3,000 square miles of territory, President Volodymyr Zelensky has proposed a 90-day plan of action that will push Russian President Putin into a corner.
Mr Zelensky wants the UK and other Western nations to:
- Confiscate Russian assets instead of just freezing them.
- Declare Putin’s United Russia Party a terror organisation – like Palestine’s Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
- Enforce a no-fly zone over the Black Sea to ensure the safety of grain exports.
- Ban the issue of all tourist visas to Russians.
A delegation of seven British MPs including former Labour Cabinet minister Liam Byrne travelled to Kyiv to hear Mr Zelensky’s plan for ending the war first-hand.
Mr Byrne said: “This is seen as a way of forcing many of Putin’s enablers to start making choices about him.
“It may not bring him down but it will force him into a corner with nowhere else to go but to sue for peace.
“ Russia has used up substantial resources for little gain. In the short-term, it cannot produce a battlefield breakthrough.”
Mr Zelensky told the MPs: “British weapons are making a huge difference but the next 90 days are critical.
“Our mission is survival. There is no way out – this is our home. We are staying here whatever it takes.”
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan added: “Zelensky has always said the war will end in negotiation, and it is up to Ukraine to decide the shape of those negotiations.”
Branding United Russia a terrorist group would mean its members – including Putin – would face arrest if they ventured abroad.
Any seized Russian assets would be used to pay for reparations in Ukraine.
But Mr Byrne added: “The top priority remains weapons supply and air defences so refugees can return to start rebuilding Ukraine’s economy.” Ukraine urgently needs 40km short-range and 200km medium-range missiles and is looking to Germany for help.
German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said: “It has taken a moment, but we are now delivering weapons. Air defence is coming.”
Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki said: “My deep belief is that Ukraine will win and create a new shape for Europe. What Ukraine is doing today will change the world.”
Former Supreme Allied Commander Europe Wes Clark, who brought the Kosovan War to an end in 1999, told MPs: “Russia has a huge advantage in terms of forces and weapons but Ukraine can rely on international support.”
Zelensky’s adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said: “We were shocked with western expectations that Ukraine would lose in three days.
“It was only when we started to fight back within the week that we saw a different Europe. It began with an understanding that Ukraine could win this war and that changed mindsets.”
Moscow’s Ministry of Finance has so far paid out more than £5billion to the families of 47,000 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine. Another 150,000 have been wounded. The number of Ukrainian casualties is not known.
Last week Russian troops fled the town of Balakliya in north-eastern Ukraine in whatever transport they could find, leaving ammunition, weapons and even clothes hanging on washing lines behind.
The UK’s long-range multiple rocket launchers were used to destroy Russian supply lines, ammunition dumps and command posts in the surprise attacks.
And while Russia still controls a fifth of Ukraine, towns in the Donbas region that fell early in the war are the new focus of Kyiv’s advancing forces.
Michael Clarke, ex-director of the Royal United Services Institute, said: “We are seeing the Russians being defeated, not just outmanoeuvred.”
Outside the recaptured city of Izyum, in the Kharkiv province, Ukraine has begun exhuming 450 bodies found in a forest.
Some victims reportedly had their hands bound while others showed signs of torture. The majority of the dead are believed to be civilians.
