UK PM says intelligence suggests Moscow’s invasion plans would see its troops not just enter Ukraine from rebel-held east, but from Belarus and encircle the capital Kyiv
People, holding signs, participate in a protest in Grand Central Station in Manhattan against war in Ukraine on February 19, in New York City. Pic/AFP
Russia is preparing to plunge Europe into its worst conflict since World War II, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said, warning that any invasion of Ukraine would freeze Moscow out of global finance. "The fact is that all the signs are that the plan has already in some senses begun," he said in a BBC interview broadcast on Sunday from the Munich Security Conference, after two Ukrainian soldiers were killed in attacks around rebel-held enclaves.
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Russian invasion plans would see its troops not just enter Ukraine from the rebel-held east, but from Belarus to the north and encircle the capital Kyiv, Johnson said, citing US intelligence relayed to Western leaders by President Joe Biden. “People need to understand the sheer cost in human life that could entail,” he said. “I’m afraid to say that the plan we are seeing is for something that could be really the biggest war in Europe since 1945, just in terms of sheer scale.”
A woman speaks on the phone with her relatives as a child looks through a train window prior to being evacuated to Russia, in Debaltseve which is controlled by pro-Russian militants, Ukraine, on Saturday. Pic/AP
The assessments of US and British spies on Ukraine cannot be trusted as they made so many grave mistakes in the run up to the US-led invasion of Iraq, Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the UN said on Sunday. “We don’t trust the US and British intelligence, they let us down, the whole world, on many occasions enough to remember weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,” Dmitry Polyanskiy told Sky.
Johnson warned that the US and Britain would seek to cut off Russian companies’ access to US dollars and British pounds if the Kremlin orders an invasion of Ukraine, adding that it would hit Russia “very, very hard.” Britain, home to the centre of global foreign exchange trading, had threatened to block Russian companies from raising capital in London and to expose property and company ownership if Russia invades Ukraine.
Russia denies it plans to annex Ukraine. Ukraine is currently surrounded on three sides by about 1,50,000 Russian soldiers, warplanes and equipment. Hundreds of artillery shells exploded along the contact line between Ukrainian soldiers and Russia-backed separatists, and thousands of people evacuated eastern Ukraine, further increasing fears on Sunday that the volatile region could spark a Russian invasion.
Meanwhile, Belarus defence minister said Russia and Belarus are extending military drills that were due to end on Sunday. The minister said the decision had been taken “in connection with the increase in military activity near the external borders” of Russia and Belarus and because of rising tension in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.
1,50,000
Approximate no. of troops Russia has stationed along the Ukrainian border currently
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