Boris Johnson has urged Vladimir Putin to “step back from the brink” as he insisted there was still a “window of opportunity” to avoid war in Ukraine.
The Prime Minister will speak to world leaders from Monday and travel to countries in Europe later this week, as he seeks to unite Western allies against the threat of Russian invasion.
On Sunday, Downing Street said the UK believes Moscow could invade Ukraine “at any moment”, as commercial airlines began cancelling flights and neighbouring Poland warned of an impending refugee crisis.
Whitehall sources said the UK was determined to play a leading role in shaping the West’s reaction to Mr Putin’s aggression, amid concern that Britain was “too absent” after Moscow’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Downing Street reiterated Britain’s fears that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would have “disastrous consequences” for both parties.
A Number 10 spokesman added: “There is still a window of opportunity for de-escalation and diplomacy, and the Prime Minister will continue to work tirelessly alongside our allies to get Russia to step back from the brink.”
Mr Johnson will focus on engagement with the Nordic and Baltic nations, with whom Britain has strong defence links. He is now receiving daily briefings from security chiefs on the growing mass of Russian forces around the periphery of Ukraine.
Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, is meanwhile launching daily “war councils”, with input from intelligence chiefs and senior diplomats from Britain’s embassies in Kyiv and Moscow.
She will also travel to Europe this week and plans to give a keynote speech at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, addressing the Ukraine security crisis’ broader implications for global security.
A Foreign Office source said: “Britain has helped lead international work on the crisis and Liz sees that as hugely important. We were too absent during Crimea in 2014, which she sees as a mistake that we can’t repeat and aren’t repeating.”
The UK is putting the final touches to a new package of sanctions on Russian strategic interests, which will be ready to be levied at short notice if Moscow advances an attack.
Russian diplomats laughed off such warnings, however. “Excuse my language, but we don’t give a s— about all their sanctions,” Viktor Tatarintsev, Russia’s ambassador to Sweden, said in an interview with Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. He argued that the “more the West pushes Russia, the stronger the Russian response will be”.
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It came amid signs of division among Natio allies, as Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, suggested there was a “whiff of Munich in the air” about current diplomatic efforts – referring to the appeasement of Nazi Germany that failed to prevent the Second World War.
The remarks were interpreted by some as a barb at Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, who have faced criticism in recent weeks for adopting a conciliatory approach towards Russia.
Mr Wallace faced a rebuke for the remarks from Vadym Prystaiko, the Ukrainian ambassador for London, who said it was “not the best time for us to offend our partners in the world, reminding them of this act which actually [did not bring] peace but the opposite, it brought war”. The diplomat added that panic is spreading “in people’s minds”, as well the financial markets, causing harm to Ukraine’s economy.
A source close to the Defence Secretary insisted his comments were intended to mean that if Mr Putin strikes “come what may, then all the diplomacy would have been a straw man”, rather than being aimed at any European allies.
Mr Wallace also disclosed that the “worsening situation” in Ukraine had prompted him to return from a family holiday overseas. Dominic Raab, the former foreign secretary, faced criticism for holidaying on the beach while Kabul fell to the Taliban last summer.
The Defence Secretary, who has warned that a Russian attack is “highly likely”, will head to Brussels for a two-day meeting with his Nato counterparts on Wednesday.
The UK has not abandoned hope that Moscow will de-escalate its military presence on Ukraine’s borders. Over the weekend, the Russian Embassy in London cited remarks by Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, tweeting:
FM #Lavrov: After Russian troops finish drills and return to barracks, West will declare ‘diplomatic victory’ by having ‘secured’ Russian ‘de-escalation’. Predictable scenario and cheap domestic political points. pic.twitter.com/S58RcmsetA
— Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) February 12, 2022
A senior UK Government source suggested the comments could be interpreted as an attempt by the Kremlin to “roll the pitch” for a “climbdown” from a full-blown invasion.
Another Cabinet minister highlighted Anglo-American divisions with Germany over a Russian gas pipe to the continent. “We have very strong, different views to some of our allies around Nord Stream [2],” Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland Secretary, told Times Radio on Sunday. London and Washington have pushed for a more robust line on blocking the pipeline if Russia presses ahead with an invasion.
On Monday, Mr Scholz will launch a last-ditch effort to pull Russia back from the brink of war as he heads to Kyiv for talks with the president of Ukraine, and then on to Moscow to meet Mr Putin on Tuesday.
However Mr Scholz was embroiled in a diplomatic spat with Ukraine before he had even set foot in the country.
Earlier on Sunday, Ukraine’s ambassador to Berlin lashed out at German “hypocrisy” over its refusal to provide so-called lethal aid, such as weapons and jets to help fight against Russia.
Andrij Melnyk furiously accused Germany of double standards in response to a German newspaper report which suggested that Berlin was indirectly providing goods with potential military use to Russia, at the same time as withholding arms to Ukraine:
German Hypocrisy
????????NO weapons for Ukraine‘s self-defence against Russian military invasion
BUT
???????? 366 million € (!) ????????exports of dual-use goods to Russia in 2020 alone which can be destined to boost weapons production (Nr. 4 on export list). Irrespective of EU santions‼️ https://t.co/LsxfSw7wUI— Andrij Melnyk (@MelnykAndrij) February 13, 2022
He was reacting to a report in Die Welt newspaper on Sunday, which revealed that German authorities granted close to 700 licences for so-called dual use exports to Russia in 2020.
In his strongest intervention yet on the risk of war, Mr Scholz said that the Russia-Ukraine crisis posed a “very, very serious threat to peace in Europe”.
He added: “Ukraine can be certain that we’ll show necessary solidarity, just as we have done in the past.”
According to German reports, Mr Scholz may offer Ukraine significant financial aid when he meets Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, in Kyiv.
In a call with Mr Zelensky, Joe Biden also “made clear that the United States would respond swiftly and decisively, together with its Allies and partners, to any further Russian aggression against Ukraine”.
On Sunday, Mr Zelensky invited Mr Biden to visit Ukraine “in the coming days”. However, US officials told CNN that was “extremely unlikely”.
Earlier, Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, said he could not confirm reports that Russia may invade as soon as Wednesday. “We cannot perfectly predict the day, but we have now been saying for some time that we are in the window, and an invasion could begin – a major military action could begin – by Russia in Ukraine any day now,” he said. “That includes this coming week before the end of the Olympics.”
The US, Germany and the Netherlands have announced plans to move some diplomatic functions from Kyiv, in central Ukraine, to Lviv, which is around 500km to the west. Australia and Canada said they would move their embassies out of Kyiv entirely, amid fears of an assault on the capital.
European leaders are meanwhile planning to draft Britain “back into the fold” of major foreign policy discussions after Brexit, by asking the UK to lead a new security organisation aimed at tackling future geopolitical challenges. Germany, the Netherlands and Poland are drawing up proposals for a “European Security Council”.
