Summary
Here’s a roundup of the key developments from the day:
- Boris Johnson has said the situation in Ukraine is “very, very dangerous” and urged Vladimir Putin to step back from “the edge of a precipice”. The prime minister said the evidence was “pretty clear” that Russia was planning an invasion.
- Russia’s ambassador to the EU has said Moscow would be within its rights to launch a “counterattack” if it felt it needed to protect Russian citizens living in eastern Ukraine. The comments in an interview with the Guardian will do little to calm fears of a major Russian assault on Ukraine, given one of the key scenarios suggested by western intelligence was Russia launching a “false-flag” operation to provide a pretext for invasion.
- A Russian attack on Ukraine could arrive with “no notice”, the armed forces minister has warned. Bombs could hit Ukraine within minutes of Vladimir Putin giving the order, James Heappey said during an interview on Sky News.
- Boris Johnson will travel to Europe later this week as part of intensive diplomatic efforts to bring the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, “back from the brink” of war in Ukraine. The defence secretary, Ben Wallace, and foreign secretary, Liz Truss, are also due to take part in meetings with international counterparts to discuss the crisis, although there were acknowledgements in Whitehall the diplomacy may prove futile if the Kremlin is set on war.
- The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy gave a joint press conference following their talks in Kyiv earlier today. They stressed the seriousness of the situation as diplomatic talks continue to avoid a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Boris Johnson cut short his UK tour on Monday to return to London as western leaders voiced concerns a Russian invasion of Ukraine could happen imminently, and Liz Truss convened a Cobra meeting to discuss the UK’s consular response.
- Vladimir Putin could launch an invasion of Ukraine “almost immediately”, the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has warned after chairing a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee. Truss repeated a call for Britons to leave Ukraine because of the threat of war.
- Families bereaved by Covid want Boris Johnson to relinquish control over which issues will be investigated in the pandemic public inquiry, alleging he is compromised by allegations of lockdown-breaking at Downing Street. The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group fears the current arrangement, where Johnson has a final say over inquiry topics, could allow him to water down examination of his own conduct and that of senior officials.
- UK ministers and the Scottish government have reached a deal over proposed freeports in Scotland, after months of disagreement over what No 10 has billed as one of the main economic benefits of Brexit. The Scottish government had resisted the idea of freeports – specific areas that offer tax breaks and other incentives to investors – which are intended to revitalise deprived areas but have been accused of encouraging tax avoidance and lower regulation.
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Keir Starmer has confirmed he received death threats following Boris Johnson’s false claim that he failed to prosecute the paedophile Jimmy Savile. The Labour leader said the prime minister’s slur had “fed into” a “rightwing conspiracy theory”, and this had caused “difficulty”.
Thanks so much for joining me today and for all your tweets, emails and comments below the line. Sorry I couldn’t reply to everyone. We’re closing this blog but I’ll be back again tomorrow and we have some other liveblogs which are still live.
You can follow our liveblog focused on the Ukraine crisis here:
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Russia’s ambassador to the EU has said Moscow would be within its rights to launch a “counterattack” if it felt it needed to protect Russian citizens living in eastern Ukraine.
The comments in an interview with the Guardian will do little to calm fears of a major Russian assault on Ukraine, given one of the key scenarios suggested by western intelligence was Russia launching a “false-flag” operation to provide a pretext for invasion.
Vladimir Chizhov, who has represented Russia in Brussels since 2005, said:
We will not invade Ukraine unless we are provoked to do that. If the Ukrainians launch an attack against Russia, you shouldn’t be surprised if we counterattack. Or, if they start blatantly killing Russian citizens anywhere – Donbas or wherever.
Donbas is the region of eastern Ukraine where the Kremlin has armed and funded an insurgency since 2014. It has also, in recent years, handed out hundreds of thousands of Russian passports to residents of two so-called “people’s republics”, which are no longer controlled by Kyiv.
More than 14,000 people have been killed in the conflict since 2014.
Russia has always denied being a party to the conflict despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Chizhov described claims Russian troops were already in the Donbas region as a “lie” but warned that a sudden escalation of the conflict there, or a Ukrainian “provocation”, could precipitate action by the Kremlin.
What I mean by provocation is that they may stage an incident against the self-proclaimed Donbas republics, provoking them, and then hitting them with all their might, thus provoking Russia to react in order to avoid humanitarian catastrophe on its borders.
The US government has claimed to have evidence that Moscow is planning just the kind of provocation Chizhov said Kyiv could launch. US officials went public last month with claims they had evidence of a plan to make a “very graphic” fake video of a Ukrainian attack.
With an estimated 145,000 Russian troops on the border with Ukraine, intelligence officials in the US said over the weekend that Russia had accelerated plans for an invasion and could move troops across the border as soon as Wednesday.
Read more from my colleagues Daniel Boffey in Brussels and Shaun Walker in Kyiv here:
Senior figures in climate diplomacy, including the key architect of the Paris climate agreement, have urged the UK government to maintain its commitments to climate action, amid escalating attacks intended to generate a “culture war” on the net zero target.
Laurence Tubiana, the French diplomat who crafted the 2015 Paris agreement, now chief executive of the European Climate Foundation, said: “We are not happy, and we are crossing our fingers [that the UK will reaffirm its net zero commitment]. It’s very important that the UK keeps this direction of travel.”
She and other international observers are increasingly worried that the rows over net zero within the UK government, which have seen the Net Zero Scrutiny Group linking the cost-of-living crisis to the carbon reduction agenda, will undermine the progress made last year at the Cop26 UN climate talks.
The UK will continue to lead the talks until Egypt takes over at the next summit, Cop27, this November. British leadership will be essential to the success of Cop27, as countries must use the next eight months to revise their national emissions-cutting plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), as they agreed to do at Glasgow.
But British diplomats will be hamstrung if rows at home over net zero overshadow their efforts, and if support from key cabinet ministers – including the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, who has barely mentioned Cop26 although it was the biggest diplomatic event on British soil since the second world war – continues to be lukewarm or nonexistent.
Read more here:
Updated
Boris Johnson cut short his UK tour on Monday to return to London as western leaders voiced concerns a Russian invasion of Ukraine could happen imminently, and Liz Truss convened a Cobra meeting to discuss the UK’s consular response.
The foreign secretary will consider whether to change advice to UK diplomats in the country, after the Foreign Office issued new guidance on Friday advising British citizens in Ukraine to leave immediately while commercial flights are still available.
No 10 said Johnson would receive an intelligence briefing on his return to London, having been due to visit Cumbria, and will convene another full Cobra meeting on Tuesday.
Speaking on a visit to Scotland, Johnson said he would be making immense diplomatic efforts over the coming days including liaising with the US president, Joe Biden. He said that Ukraine’s future membership of Nato could not be “bargained away” as part of western leaders’ efforts.
“I think it’s very important that we have a conversation, but what we can’t do is trade away the sovereign rights of the Ukrainians who aspire to Nato membership,” he said.
Read the full story:
Updated
Liz Truss has defended her decision to travel to Moscow to meet her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
The meeting concluded with a testy press conference and claims that the UK foreign secretary had confused two areas of Russia with parts of Ukraine.
Truss told reporters: “I went to Russia to deliver a very clear message, which is that it’s Russia who is the aggressor, they have 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border and if they stage an incursion into Ukraine, that would have a damaging effect on the Russian people and the Russian government.
“Of course, the Russians didn’t like what I had to say but I say it nevertheless.
“And I want them to desist and I want them to be aware that there will be severe costs of an invasion.”
Updated
Liz Truss has claimed Germany had been “clear” that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline would not go ahead if Russia invaded Ukraine.
The US president, Joe Biden, has said the Russia-Germany pipeline, which has been built but is not yet operating, would be stopped if there was an invasion but the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has been less explicit about the situation.
Truss said:
The Germans, and indeed the Americans, have been very clear that Nord Stream 2 would not go ahead in the event of a Russian incursion on Ukraine.
The prime minister is right, we do need to reduce dependence on Russian gas in Europe and find alternative sources.
Russian oligarchs would be targeted with “severe” sanctions if Russia invaded Ukraine, she said.
The foreign secretary said she still hoped for a diplomatic solution, telling reporters: “That is why the prime minister and I are travelling around Europe this week, that is why we are working to persuade the Russians to remove their troops from the border, because a war would be disastrous.”
But she added:
We are very clear that Russia is the aggressor in this situation. They have 100,000 troops lined up on the Ukrainian borders.
They need to de-escalate because it will be a cost to Russia if they invade Ukraine, both in terms of the cost of a long-running war, but also the sanctions that we would impose, which would be severe, and would target oligarchs and it would target companies across Russia.
Updated
Putin could launch invasion of Ukraine 'almost immediately', says Liz Truss
Vladimir Putin could launch an invasion of Ukraine “almost immediately”, the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has warned after chairing a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee.
Truss repeated a call for Britons to leave Ukraine because of the threat of war, PA Media reported.
We are fully aware that there could be a Russian invasion almost immediately. That is why British citizens do need to leave Ukraine but we are also pursuing the path of diplomacy and de-escalation.
Updated
German chancellor stresses important of de-escalating Ukraine tensions
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy gave a joint press conference following their talks in Kyiv earlier today.
They stressed the seriousness of the situation as diplomatic talks continue to avoid a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The German chancellor said Germany stands closely by Ukraine’s side and is impressed with the country’s democratic movement.
Scholz says “no other country has supported Ukraine as much financially as Germany”, and has just announced that €150m will be paid out to Ukraine with immediate effect, with a new credit of another €150m.
He says Germany has been training Ukrainian soldiers and treating injured civilians, and that “the sovereignty and territorial independence of Ukraine are non-negotiable”.
Scholz has promised to emphasise the consequences of an invasion when he is in Moscow tomorrow:
If Russia again violates the territorial integrity of Ukraine, we will know what to do … There’s one central challenge: to de-escalate the situation and for troops to draw back.
Zelenskiy, meanwhile, said they had spoken about sanctions and the importance of preventative measures and added that “Ukraine’s security is the security of all of Europe”.
Updated
Here’s Boris Johnson’s response when asked about the death threats Keir Starmer has been getting after the prime minister falsely accused him of failing to prosecute Savile while he was director of public prosecutions.
He doesn’t seem to be taking the issue too seriously.
.@BorisJohnson says he's said 'more than enough' about his discredited Jimmy Savile slur after @Keir_Starmer confirmed he'd received death threats since the claim was made https://t.co/KthO0TSHZd pic.twitter.com/VXm2mtwwbG
— ITV News Politics (@ITVNewsPolitics) February 14, 2022
My colleague Dan Sabbagh, the Guardian’s defence and security editor, has tweeted some key questions on the Ukraine/Russia crisis.
Flurry of British govt activity on Ukraine this afternoon.
— Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) February 14, 2022
So:
Will Boris Johnson go to the Kremlin?
Is a sanctions package ready?
What will the impact be of any conflict on energy prices?
How will UK help in a refugee crisis?
Is arming any resistance a real option?
The prime minister condemns death threats received by Keir Starmer over the Jimmy Savile row, Downing Street has said.
Starmer said on Monday that Boris Johnson’s claims he failed to prosecute Savile while he was director of public prosecutions had “fed into” a “rightwing conspiracy theory”, and this had caused “difficulty”.
The Labour leader confirmed he received death threats in the wake of the jibe.
Asked if Johnson condemned the threats, the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “Yes.”
He added: “Any sort of death threats to politicians are never acceptable.”
Updated
Downing Street said Boris Johnson has no role in the appointment of the next Metropolitan police commissioner.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said:
As (you’ll) be aware, he doesn’t have a role in this appointment. The commissioner is appointed by Her Majesty on recommendation by the home secretary, who has a statutory duty to give regard to the views of the mayor of London.
Pressed on whether there was any situation in which the prime minister might offer “advice or counsel” on the matter, the spokesman said:
He doesn’t have a role in the appointment, you would expect the prime minister to be notified of the home secretary’s decision but beyond that he doesn’t have a role.
Updated
Downing Street said British nationals should not expect a “military airlift” from Ukraine.
The PM’s official spokesman said:
British nationals should leave the Ukraine via commercial means and there are still flights available.
They should not expect a military airlift from the country.
'No sign' Russia will back down amid crisis over Ukraine, says Downing Street
Downing Street said there has been “no sign” Russia will “back down” amid the crisis on the Ukrainian border.
The PM’s official spokesman said:
It’s certainly true that we have seen no sign so far that Russia will back down. There are more than 130,000 Russian troops on the border with the Ukraine and we are gravely concerned.
But we will continue to explore every possible avenue to talk Russia back from this path.
Parliament could be recalled if Russia invades Ukraine this week, the spokesman said.
Asked if this was a possibility, the PM’s official spokesman said:
While I wouldn’t get into a hypothetical, obviously we would discuss that with the Speaker – and in that situation you would expect that the prime minister would want parliament to be updated and for it to have its say.
He said such discussions with the speaker had not yet taken place.
Updated
Downing Street said the prime minister’s responses to his police questionnaire would not be made public.
On whether Boris Johnson had returned his questionnaire yet, the PM’s official spokesman said:
As we said on Friday, we will respond as required. As you know, I think the Met made clear that that was in seven days, so we will comply with that requirement.
Asked if the responses would be made public, the spokesman said: “No.”
Foreign secretary to chair Cobra meeting in response to Ukraine crisis
On today’s Cobra meeting, a No 10 spokesman said:
This afternoon the foreign secretary will chair a (Cobra) meeting to discuss the consular response to the crisis in Ukraine following Friday’s update to travel advice.
The prime minister will receive a security briefing from his intelligence chiefs today.
Tomorrow the prime minister will chair a full meeting of (Cobra) to discuss the UK’s response to the current situation.
Updated
The foreign secretary, Liz Truss, will chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee on Monday to discuss the consular response to the Ukraine crisis, it has been announced.
NEW: Foreign Sec will host a COBR meeting this afternoon to discuss consular response to Ukraine crisis, No 10 has said.
— Lucy Fisher (@LOS_Fisher) February 14, 2022
It coomes after FCDO changed advice on Friday, urging all Brits to leave country asap.
PM will chair a COBR tomorrow to discuss full UK response.
Updated
The prime minister will cut short a trip to Cumbria in light of the situation in Ukraine, it has just been announced.
Boris Johnson will not stay overnight in the region, instead returning to Downing Street, No 10 said.
Downing Street said it did not order the defence secretary to cancel his holiday.
It was reported over the weekend that the “worsening situation” in Ukraine caused Ben Wallace, who has warned an attack is “highly likely”, to leave a family holiday in Europe early on Sunday, having set off a day earlier.
Asked if No 10 ordered him to cancel his holiday, the PM’s official spokesman said: “No.”
Pressed on why Wallace deemed it OK to take the trip in the first place, the PM’s spokesman said:
I think this is a fast-moving situation. I think he’s obviously kept that position under review and made the decision to cut short that holiday, which I understand had been long-planned.
On the foreign secretary’s trip to Moscow last week, Downing Street said “no one was under any illusions about what can be achieved in a single meeting”.
The PM’s official spokesman said
It’s an important opportunity to present our understanding of the situation and to hear directly from the Russians on their position as well.
We will continue always to explore all opportunities to take a diplomatic path and we stand ready to have further discussions with our Russian counterparts at all levels in the interest of de-escalating this crisis.
I think no one was under any illusions about what can be achieved in a single meeting. But it’s crucial that we take all these opportunities and continue to put forward this message about how further aggression will be responded to, so Russia can be in no doubt about our position and [the] position of our Nato allies.
Updated
Updated
Asked if he would would be travelling to Moscow to negotiate with Vladimir Putin, Boris Johnson said:
I’m going to be doing everything I can to help the diplomatic process. I’ll be talking to various leaders, including Joe Biden, very soon.
He also said that Ukraine’s future membership of Nato could not be “bargained away” as he stressed the importance of continuing talks.
Johnson told reporters:
I think it’s very important that we have a conversation, but what we can’t do is trade away the sovereign rights of the Ukrainians who aspire to Nato membership.
That’s something that was a massive gain for our world. If you remember what happened in 1990, you had a Europe whole and free, countries could decide their own futures. We can’t bargain that away. It’s for the Ukrainian people.
Updated
Boris Johnson said Vladimir Putin needed to understand the economic and political consequences if he launched an invasion of Ukraine.
He said Europe needed to cuts its reliance on Russian hydrocarbons – including the Nord Stream pipelines.
Speaking to reporters in Scotland, the prime minister said the world needed “to learn the lesson of 2014”, when not enough was done to move away from Russian gas and oil after the Russian activity in eastern Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea.
What I think all European countries need to do now is get Nord Stream out of the bloodstream.
Yank out that that hypodermic drip feed of Russian hydrocarbons that is keeping so many European economies going.
We need to find alternative sources of energy ... and get ready to impose some very, very severe economic consequences on Russia.
Updated
Johnson urges Putin to step back from 'the edge of a precipice'
Boris Johnson has said the situation in Ukraine is “very, very dangerous” and urged Vladimir Putin to step back from “the edge of a precipice”.
The prime minister said the evidence was “pretty clear” that Russia was planning an invasion.
There were troops massing on the Ukrainian border and “all sorts of other signs that show that there are serious preparations” going on, he added.
On a visit to Scotland, Johnson said:
This is a very, very dangerous, difficult situation, we are on the edge of a precipice but there is still time for president [Vladimir] Putin to step back.
He called for more dialogue and urged Russia to avoid a “disastrous” invasion.
Updated
Updated
Keir Starmer has confirmed he received death threats following Boris Johnson’s false claim that he failed to prosecute the paedophile Jimmy Savile.
The Labour leader said the prime minister’s slur had “fed into” a “rightwing conspiracy theory”, and this had caused “difficulty”.
But he said he would rather not talk about the matter because he did not want his young children to hear “too much” of what may be said about him.
It comes after police launched an investigation into online death threats against the Labour leader in the wake of the PM’s jibe in the House of Commons.
Asked if he had received such threats after Johnson’s comments, Starmer said: “Yes. I do not like talking about this because I have got young children.”
He told BBC Radio Newcastle:
It’s very important for me to say that what the prime minister said was wrong, it was very wrong. He knew exactly what he was doing.
There has been a rightwing conspiracy theory for some time that’s a complete fabrication.
He fed into that, and that has caused difficulty, but my preference, if I may, is not to talk about that because, as I say, I have got young children and I don’t particularly want them to hear too much of what may or may not be said about me.
Updated
Parliament being recalled may offer an “opportunity” for parliamentarians to show the UK’s resolve in opposing Russia, a minister has said.
When asked if he could guarantee whether or not parliament would be recalled this week, the armed forces minister James Heappey told BBC Breakfast:
Well, I mean, that is a matter for the speaker, the prime minister and the leaders of the opposition parties.
I’ve got to be honest on that, I think that you know, if you consider what the UK is doing in all of this, parliament being recalled may offer an opportunity for parliamentarians to show the UK’s resolve in opposing what might happen or to give it support to the diplomatic efforts.
We want to be clear that if Russia were to cross the border into Ukraine, we’re not then entering a period of kind of febrile, tactical responses to Russian activity.
We’re entering into a period of sustained, strategic competition with Russia, in which we need to make sure that Putin’s wider aims beyond any territorial aim he may have in Ukraine, but his wider aims about Russia’s role in the world, his wider aims around constraining Nato, that he fails to achieve those and that Nato shows its resolve within its own borders.
Updated
The president of Estonia, Alar Karis, has agreed that “probably at the moment” it would be unwise or inflammatory to place Nato troops in Ukraine, but added that Estonia had given the country some military support.
Karis said the situation between Russia and Ukraine was “extremely serious and tensions are very high”, adding that an invasion of Ukraine could have an impact on Europe, too.
“We have given some missiles to Ukraine and so have some other countries, so this is some kind of military help we are doing at the moment,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
He said a Nato-enforced no-fly zone over Ukraine could be helpful, too, adding:
Any means of what we are doing now might be helpful, as well as more and more diplomats and politicians from different countries going to Ukraine in political support. So this is also important, not only military support.
Asked if he thinks that is inflammatory, he said:
I think, from a Russian perspective, everything is inflammatory. They look (at things) in a different way, as we’ve heard from previous discussions. Logic doesn’t work and doesn’t apply when Russia is concerned.
He added that if Ukraine wants to join Nato, the organisation has an “open door policy” and it is up to the nation and Nato to decide if a country should be admitted as a member.
Updated
Boris Johnson will not meet the leader of the Scottish Conservatives as he travels north to promote his levelling-up agenda.
The prime minister is in Scotland on Monday, to announce an agreement with the Scottish government on the plan to create new green freeports.
But with Douglas Ross, the leader of the Scottish Tories, among those in the party who have called for Johnson to quit after lockdown parties in Downing Street, there will be no meeting between him and Johnson.
The SNP Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, said the visit north should be Johnson’s “farewell tour”.
Blackford told Sky News:
This is prime minister who is not going to meet his own Scottish Conservative leader, even the Scottish Conservatives want Boris Johnson to go.
I hope this is his farewell tour, he is a man who is deeply unpopular up here.
More than 75% of Scots think he should resign and I think people right up and down these islands recognise that this is a prime minister who no longer has moral authority.
Updated
The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has called for tougher sanctions for Russia over the Ukraine crisis. Speaking in Sunderland, he said:
I would like to see tougher sanctions. I’d like that threat to be very real because let’s see this for what it is. It’s Russian aggression.
So, I would say to the government go further on sanctions.
I will say this: Russia wants to see our allies divided, it wants to see division in the United Kingdom, and we are not going to divide and, therefore, we support the government in what it’s doing.
We support our allies and the sovereignty of Ukraine but, yes, those sanctions should go further.
Updated
Boris Johnson will travel to Europe later this week as part of intensive diplomatic efforts to bring the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, “back from the brink” of war in Ukraine.
The defence secretary, Ben Wallace, and foreign secretary, Liz Truss, are also due to take part in meetings with international counterparts to discuss the crisis, although there were acknowledgements in Whitehall the diplomacy may prove futile if the Kremlin is set on war, PA news reports.
The diplomatic activity came as the UK stepped up warnings for Britons to evacuate from Ukraine, with a defence minister suggesting missiles would start raining down on the country within minutes of Putin deciding to launch an invasion.
Downing Street conceded Moscow could be planning to invade “at any moment” but that the prime minister would hold talks with world leaders before a trip to Europe during this week’s “window of opportunity” for de-escalation.
Johnson, who is receiving daily intelligence briefings from security chiefs, was understood to be working with allies to provide further defensive and economic support to Kyiv, with an announcement touted for the coming days.
A Downing Street spokesman said:
The prime minister will continue to work tirelessly alongside our allies to get Russia to step back from the brink.
Updated
The Conservative chairman of the defence select committee has claimed “we have no leverage” over Russia and “there is no co-ordination between what the west is actually doing”.
Speaking on LBC, Tobias Ellwood said:
Putin is aligning Russia towards China. So, any sanctions that we threaten absolutely plays into his own strategy.
That’s my point. We don’t have a strategy and the final one has to do with dialogue. You know, Putin naturally craves the international spotlight and we’re actually running around him and he’s enjoying this.
We have no leverage, we have no collective effort. There’s no co-ordination between what the west is actually doing.
There’s the last point that we hide behind the fact that Ukraine is not a member of Nato. Well, Libya wasn’t a member of Nato and we stepped in there to avoid a bloodbath in Benghazi.
Bosnia wasn’t a member of Nato. Kosovo is not a member of Nato. This idea that there’s no treaty for us to lean on, surely we have a commitment to freedom to supporting European democracy.
The MP and former soldier added: “This is exactly the language of somebody who wants just to appease your actual aggressor. We’ve got this completely wrong.”
Updated
UK ministers and the Scottish government have reached a deal over proposed freeports in Scotland, after months of disagreement over what No 10 has billed as one of the main economic benefits of Brexit.
The Scottish government had resisted the idea of freeports – specific areas that offer tax breaks and other incentives to investors – which are intended to revitalise deprived areas but have been accused of encouraging tax avoidance and lower regulation.
Scottish ministers instead proposed the idea of green ports, based around low-emission industries and fair work practices. The deal appears to follow this model, but with the compromise name of “green freeports”.
The plan proposed two green freeports, which can be rail or air hubs as well as seaports. They can apply alongside other local businesses, as well as the council and other public bodies.
A bidding process for the two locations will run from this spring until summer, with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which is leading the process, saying it hopes the sites will be running by spring next year.
Read more here:
Europe is closer to war than at any point over the past 70 years, a UK government minister has warned, as Russian troops amass on the borders of Ukraine and western leaders warn that an invasion could take place early this week.
The armed forces minister James Heappey told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme he feared “we are closer than we’ve been on this continent” to war “for 70 years”.
He said:
There’s 130,000 Russian troops around the borders of Ukraine, thousands more on amphibious shipping in the Black Sea and the Azov Sea.
All of the combat enablers are in place and my fear is that if all of this was just about a show to win leverage in diplomacy that doesn’t require the logistics, the fuel, the medical supplies, the bridging assets, the unglamorous stuff that actually makes an invasion force credible, but doesn’t attract headlines. Yet all of that is now in place too.
Western leaders are mounting a final effort to negotiate diplomatic solutions after US intelligence said an attack could be imminent. The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, will travel to Kyiv for talks with Ukrainian officials and Boris Johnson said he would hold further talks with world leaders to bring Russia “back from the brink” of war.
His office did not say which world leaders Johnson was hoping to talk to or where he planned to travel, but it is understood he is keen to engage with Nordic and Baltic countries.
The Foreign Office has asked British citizens to leave the country while roads are still open and commercial airlines are still flying.
Heappey said there was “real urgency” to ongoing negotiations.
Read the full story here:
James Heappey has said the UK government does not believe that suggestions of Ukraine giving up its goal of Nato membership is now official policy.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK Vadym Prystaiko told BBC Radio 5 that the country would, due to threats and blackmail, consider “serious concessions” to avoid war with Russia.
The armed forces minister disagreed that he believed that was now official policy and told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme:
I think what the British government has a position on is Ukraine sovereignty and, therefore, their right to choose which alliances they want to be part of.
Now, if Ukraine makes a sovereign decision that it doesn’t want to be a part of Nato, we respect that, there are plenty of other countries in Europe who have also made that judgment and with whom we have good relations.
Similarly, as the course of the diplomatic negotiations has gone on, we’ve been clear that we wouldn’t support any effort that rule out the Ukrainian membership of Nato. This is their sovereign right and that’s what we respect.
Asked if it would be helpful for them not to make that commitment, Heappey added: “It would be a judgment entirely for them and we would support them either way.”
Bereaved families call for PM to relinquish control over UK Covid inquiry topics
Families bereaved by Covid want Boris Johnson to relinquish control over which issues will be investigated in the pandemic public inquiry, alleging he is compromised by allegations of lockdown-breaking at Downing Street.
The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group fears the current arrangement, where Johnson has a final say over inquiry topics, could allow him to water down examination of how his own conduct and that of senior officials may have undermined public trust in infection control measures that the bereaved say cost lives.
The group, which represents more than 6,000 families, is calling on the prime minister to commit to accepting terms of reference presented by the chair to the inquiry, Lady Hallett, after a public consultation. Under the Inquiries Act it is for the minister in formal charge to set the terms of reference, in this case the prime minister.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that it’s not good enough for him to just take the chair’s recommendations for the terms of reference as advice and he needs to commit to implementing them in full,” said Hannah Brady, a member of the bereaved group. “The fact his office is under police investigation for breaching the rules shows he is compromised and cannot be allowed to have a final say on what the inquiry looks into.”
More than 159,000 people in the UK have died within 28 days of a positive Covid test and more than 180,000 had Covid on their death certificates.
The call for control over the inquiry’s terms of reference to be handed to Hallett was backed by the Labour party.
“This inquiry is one of the most important in living history yet it is being supervised by a government paralysed by total chaos,” said Fleur Anderson, the shadow paymaster general. “If the prime minister had any respect for the bereaved families he would accept and implement the chair’s recommendations in full, not half-heartedly or under advisement. We cannot allow an administration currently under police investigation to mark its own homework on how it handled the pandemic.”
Read the full story here:
Bombs could drop on Ukraine within minutes of Putin giving order, minister says
A Russian attack on Ukraine could arrive with “no notice”, the armed forces minister has warned.
Bombs could hit Ukraine within minutes of Vladimir Putin giving the order, James Heappey said during an interview on Sky News.
He said:
My fear is it is very imminent, that’s not to say it’s definitely going to happen.
This is a warning because minutes after Putin gives the order, missiles and bombs could be landing on Ukrainian cities.
On Friday, all Britons were told to leave Ukraine immediately.
Heappey explains why the advice changed so abruptly:
We’ve seen now that there’s 130,000 combat troops around Ukraine’s land borders. There’s thousands more on amphibious shipping in the Black Sea.
Russia has concentrated artillery missile systems and combat air in the area. And, perhaps more ominously, although it grabs less headlines, all of the combat enablers, the logistics, the fuel, the medical supplies, the bridging assets, are all also now in place.
So, the reason that the travel advice changed on Friday and the urgency of the messaging since is that the attack could effectively now happen with no notice.
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