UK to discuss 'immediate' sanctions against Russia at high-level security meeting

LONDON

The British government announced that it is convening an emergency council meeting at 0630GMT Tuesday to discuss the UK’s response to Russia’s recognition of eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions as independent states, including immediate sanctions.

“The Prime Minister will chair a COBR at 0630 tomorrow morning to discuss the latest developments in Ukraine and to coordinate the UK response, including agreeing a significant package of sanctions to be introduced immediately,” the official Twitter account of Number 10 tweeted.

The meeting’s announcement came straight after a phone call between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which the two leaders discussed “the deteriorating situation in and around Ukraine.”

“Outlining his grave concern at recent developments in the region,” Johnson told President Zelensky that “he believed an invasion was a real possibility in the coming hours and days.”

Johnson “strongly condemned the Kremlin’s decision today to recognise Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states and said the move made the Minsk agreements and process unworkable.”

He said the UK was “already engaging with partners on the issue” and “would raise it at the United Nations Security Council and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in the coming days.”

Pointing out that the “UK had already drawn up sanctions to target those complicit in the violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity,” Johnson said that “those measures would come into force tomorrow.”

The British premier also said “he would explore sending further defensive support to Ukraine, at the request of the Ukrainian Government.”

Johnson and Zelensky “agreed that the West needed to support Ukraine in the event of an invasion but should continue to pursue a diplomatic solution until the last possible second.”

Regardless of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions, the UK “would be steadfast in its full support of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Johnson also told Zelensky.

Rising tensions

Putin announced the recognition in a speech Monday that also attacked Ukraine’s government and the US and accused the West of ignoring Moscow's core security concerns.

Along with Russia’s military buildup, tensions have recently risen dramatically in eastern Ukraine, with reports of a growing number of cease-fire violations, multiple shelling incidents, and the evacuation of civilians from the pro-Russian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

The US, with its European allies, has said that Russia is setting the stage to invade Ukraine after having amassed over 100,000 troops and heavy equipment in and around its neighbor.

Russia has denied that it is preparing to invade and instead accuses Western countries of undermining its security through NATO’s expansion towards its borders.

In 2014, Moscow began to support separatist forces in eastern Ukraine against the central government, a policy that it has maintained since then. The conflict has taken more than 13,000 lives, according to the UN.