Russia-Ukraine crisis LIVE: Explosions rock Kyiv as Russian assault continues | One million refugees flee Ukraine
Boris Johnson will update MPs on his talks with allies in eastern Europe as the UK piled more pressure on Russia over its Ukraine invasion.
The Ukraine military says Russian paratroopers have landed in its second-largest city Kharkiv.
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Hide AdAt least 21 people were killed and 112 wounded in the shelling of Ukraine's second most populous city Kharkiv,the city’s mayor has said.
It comes as US President Joe Biden used his first State of the Union address to announce US airspace was closed to Russian flights, adding his administration would be joining the UK and other allies in pursuing the Russian oligarchs and “corrupt leaders who built billions of dollars off (Vladimir Putin’s) violent regime”.
Scotland will send half a million items of medical supplies to Ukraine to help those “fighting a battle for democracy and freedom” against the Russian invasion, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
The First Minister visited an NHS Scotland distribution centre in North Lanarkshire on Wednesday to see the medical equipment being packed before it is flown to Ukraine.
Ms Sturgeon said the shipment will be an “initial consignment” of items requested by the Ukrainian Government from NHS Scotland’s reserve stockpile, and she pledged to continue providing the “maximum we possibly can” for the duration of the conflict.
Russian forces unleashed their attack on Ukraine last week on the orders of Vladimir Putin, who announced a “special military operation” at dawn.
There have been reports of significant shelling overnight in Chernihiv in the north of Ukraine overnight.
G7 leaders have condemned Russia’s “unprovoked and completely unjustified attack” on Ukraine as a “serious violation” of international law.
There have been called for the UK to do more to help with the refugee crisis in Ukraine.
You can follow updates in our live blog.
Russia-Ukraine crisis LIVE: Explosions rock Kyiv as Russian assault continues | One million refugees flee Ukraine
Boris Johnson said shifting away from Russian oil and gas would help with energy security.
The Prime Minister said: “In the UK we have been able to reduce our dependency on Russian gas very substantially.
“Only 3% of our gas supplies now come from Russia.”
Mr Johnson said the response includes granting licences for UK gas reserves but also shifting to low-carbon energy, including nuclear power.
He added: “The faster this country can be more self-reliant on our own energy, the more prosperous we will be, but also, of course, the more sustainable our energy prices will be, and that will benefit the UK consumer.”
Boris Johnson said there had been a failure to stand up to Russia in 2014 when Crimea was annexed.
“We have got to recognise that we were not tough enough and in the end we didn’t do enough, as Europeans, to wean ourselves off Russian hydrocarbons, off Russian oil and gas,” the Prime Minister said.
The volatility in gas prices in Europe was a “consequence of that failure”, he said.
“We have got to make sure that we cut the umbilicus, we snip the drip feed into our bloodstream from Nord Stream.
The Prime Minister added that Russian President Vladimir Putin has “gravely miscalculated” the situation saying: ““He believes that Ukraine has no real right to exist as a sovereign, independent country”
Boris Johnson said the UK’s sanctions will hit the “economic interests that have been supporting Russia’s war machine”.
Speaking after a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee, the Prime Minister said: “They will hit Russia very hard and there is a lot more that we are going to do in the event of an invasion.
“Be in no doubt that if Russian companies are prevented from raising capital on the UK financial markets, if we unpeel the facade of Russian ownership of companies, of property, it will start to hurt.”
Boris Johnson has said the “first barrage of UK economic sanctions against Russia” will be revealed today as he warned Vladimir Putin is bent on a “full scale invasion of Ukraine”.
After hosting an emergency Cobra meeting, the Prime Minister said: “This is I should stress just the first barrage of UK economic sanctions against Russia because we expect I’m afraid that there is more Russian irrational behaviour to come.
“I’m afraid all the evidence is that President Putin is indeed bent on a full scale invasion of the Ukraine, the overrunning, the subjugation of an independent, sovereign European country and I think, let’s be absolutely clear, that will be absolutely catastrophic.”