UK to withdraw some embassy staff from Ukraine amid growing threat from Russia

Ukraine round-up: Is Russia running out of troops?

AUG 11: The facility is Europe's largest, and was seized by Russian troops in March. It saw shelling last week, with Kyiv and Moscow blaming each other for the attack. Foreign ministers from the G7 group of industrial powers have urged Russia to "immediately hand back control" to Ukraine, warning that a failure to do so raises the risk of a nuclear accident. Ukraine says Russian aircraft destroyed in Crimea blasts What exactly happened when a series of explosions hit a Russian airbase in Crimea is still becoming clear. Ukraine has said several Russian warplanes were destroyed; Russia denies this and that the explosions were the result of an attack. Crimea was annexed in a disputed referendum by Russia in 2014. Internationally it is still seen as part of Ukraine. An attack by Ukraine on Russia in Crimea would be a major escalation. But Ukraine has denied responsibility for the blasts, which Russia says were caused by ammunition being detonated. In one of his regular addresses Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: "This Russian war...began with Crimea and must end with Crimea - with its liberation." Is Russia struggling to find troops for Ukraine? There are indications the Kremlin is running out of troops for its war with Ukraine. Regional authorities in Russia are pursuing a campaign to recruit volunteer fighters, but it is not getting much traction, one report says. According to independent Russian website Mediazona, at least 25 Russian regions are now trying to form volunteer battalions. "The local authorities are sparing no effort in advertising the battalions or reporting about them in the media, but the results of their efforts fail to impress," Mediazona says. Local administrations are offering lavish payments for fighting in Ukraine, but some have found only a fraction of the fighting force they are trying to assemble, the report says. Earlier today, the UK Ministry of Defence said the volunteer battalions being raised across Russia will likely form a large part of a new army corps. However, "given very limited levels of popular enthusiasm for volunteering for combat in Ukraine", it will probably be difficult for Russia to find the required number of troops, the British military said. Several independent Russian media outlets said last week the private military company known as Wagner was trying to recruit fighters for Ukraine among inmates at Russian jails. Russian journalist faces criminal case for 'discrediting army' Back in March Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova made headlines around the world by protesting live on TV against Russia's invasion of Ukraine. She has not let up in her opposition to the war since, protesting with an anti-war poster near the Kremlin in July. On Wednesday her lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov said the Russian authorities had charged her with spreading false information about the Russian armed forces as a result of this latest protest. Ms Ovsyannikova, 44, wrote in a post on social media that her apartment was raided by law enforcement officers in the early hours of Wednesday. "They scared my young daughter," she added. The journalist was later detained. This was her protest from March. Quarter of UK refugee sponsors do not want to carry on A quarter of sponsors of Ukrainians as part of the Homes for Ukraine scheme do not want to continue the arrangement beyond six months, the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) has found. Launched in March, the scheme has seen about 75,000 refugees arrive in the UK. Sponsors agreed to provide accommodation in their own home for a minimum of six months. But there are concerns at what will happen when those arrangements reach the end of that period. The scheme was set up by the government to help those fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and worked alongside the Ukraine Family Scheme - which allowed refugees to join relatives already living in the UK.

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Ukraine war: UK to send Ukraine M270 multiple-launch rocket systems

JUNE 6: Ben Wallace said the M270 multiple-launch rocket system will help Ukraine defend itself against Russia. The UK government has not confirmed how many weapons will be sent, but the BBC understands it will be three initially. The decision was co-ordinated with the US, which announced last week it was also supplying a rocket system. The move by the US has already angered Moscow and on Sunday Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to expand the list of targets Russia will attack in Ukraine if Western countries send long-range weapons to Kyiv. The UK government said the Ukrainian military will be trained in how to use the launchers in the UK in the coming weeks. Announcing the move, Mr Wallace said the UK was taking a leading role in supplying Ukrainian troops with the "vital weapons they need to defend their country from unprovoked invasion". He said: "As Russia's tactics change, so must our support to Ukraine. "These highly capable multiple-launch rocket systems will enable our Ukrainian friends to better protect themselves against the brutal use of long-range artillery, which Putin's forces have used indiscriminately to flatten cities." Britain and America have led the way in supplying weapons to Ukraine, but giving it advanced long range rockets marks a significant shift, said the BBC's defence correspondent Jonathan Beale. It is also a recognition that Ukraine is struggling to compete against Russia's vast artillery arsenal, he added. The UK's multiple launch rocket system can fire 12 surface-to-surface missiles within a minute and can strike targets within 50 miles (80km) with pinpoint accuracy - far further than the artillery Ukraine currently possesses. It is similar to the system the US is sending, the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). Last week Washington said it would supply four HIMARS multiple rocket launchers to Ukraine - following receipt of guarantees they would be used for defensive purposes only and not to strike targets inside Russia. In an interview on Russian state TV on Sunday, Mr Putin said: "In general, all this fuss about additional arms supplies, in my opinion, has only one goal - to drag out the armed conflict as long as possible." The Russian leader said what the US was supplying was "nothing new". But he warned against sending missiles with longer ranges: "If they are supplied, we will draw appropriate conclusions from this and use our weapons, of which we have enough, to strike at those targets that we are not striking yet." The warning came as explosions shook parts of Kyiv on Sunday in the first assault on the capital city for weeks, while fierce fighting for control of key towns and cities in the eastern Donbas region continues. Russia refocused its military efforts on the Donbas at the end of March after pulling back from the Kyiv region. Some of the fiercest fighting is currently in the eastern city of Severodonetsk. Capturing the city would deliver the Luhansk region to Russian forces and their local separatist allies, who also control much of neighbouring Donetsk. The two regions form the heavily industrial Donbas. On Sunday, Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said he had visited front-line troops in the eastern Donbas region to the city of Lysychansk and the town of Soledar. Britain and the US have are among the leading nations giving arms to support Ukraine since Russia invaded in February. The UK has also delivered more than 5,000 next generation light anti-tank weapons - known as Nlaw - which analysts believe have been critical to Ukraine driving back Russian ground assaults since the war began. Other weapon systems delivered by the government include short-range Brimstone 1 missiles, Mastiff armoured vehicles and Starstreak missile air defence systems - with the overall military support to Ukraine costing £750m so far, the government said. Several other countries have pledged to send advanced weapons to Ukraine. Germany has promised to send its most modern air defence system - the Iris-T - to enable Ukraine to shield an entire city from Russian air attacks. Support for war crimes investigation Meanwhile, a specialist team of lawyers and police officers will be offered to assist the chief prosecutor investigating alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine, the Justice Secretary Dominic Raab announced on Monday. The offer will include a Metropolitan Police officer stationed in the International Criminal Court in The Hague, in the Netherlands - who will provide the ICC's prosecutor Karim Khan with greater access to British police and military expertise. On top of this, seven lawyers experienced in international criminal law will be offered to help uncover evidence of war crimes committed in Ukraine and prosecute those responsible. The ICC has already begun an investigation that may target senior Russian officials thought to be responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide. Atrocities and mass graves have been reported in towns and cities around Ukraine previously occupied by Russian forces - who withdrew from around the Kyiv and other areas they previously occupied to focus their offensive in the east. Civilian massacres have been discovered in places like Bucha, a town near the Ukrainian capital, with people found dead in the street, having been allegedly bound, gagged and executed by retreating Russian soldiers. Ukraine has so far reported 15,000 suspected war crimes, including Ukrainian women alleging being raped by Russian troops. Some 600 suspects have been identified and 80 prosecutions have begun, with one tank commander already sentenced to life in prison in May, after being found guilty by a Kyiv court of shooting a 62-year-old civilian in the back.

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UK inflation hits 40-year high amid Russia-Ukraine war

Britain’s inflation rate rose to the highest level in 40 years last month as Russia’s war in Ukraine fueled further increases in food and fuel prices

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UK: Russia will push to capture 2 more cities

The British military believes Russia will make a push to try to seize the cities of Kramatorsk and Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine.

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Russia orders troops into eastern Ukraine

FEB 22; Russia said the troops would engage in "peacekeeping" in the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics. But the US said calling them peacekeepers was "nonsense", and that Russia was creating a pretext for war. The two regions are home to Russian-backed rebels who have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014. Ukraine's president accused Russia of wilfully violating its sovereignty. In a late-night televised address to the nation, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine wanted peace, but declared: "We are not afraid" and "will not give anything away to anyone". Kyiv needed "clear and effective actions of support" from its international partners, he said. "It is very important to see now who our real friend and partner is, and who will continue to scare the Russian Federation with words only," he added. At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield dismissed Russia's claims that troops would be taking on a "peacekeeping" role, saying: "We know what they really are". Recognising Luhansk and Donetsk as independent was part of Russia's bid to create a reason to invade Ukraine, she said. Meanwhile, Russia's UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya argued for the need to defend the rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region from what he called Ukrainian aggression. "Allowing a new bloodbath in the Donbas is something we do not intend to do," he said. In recent years, Russian passports have been given out to large numbers of people in Donetsk and Luhansk, and Western allies fear Russia will now move military units in under the guise of protecting its citizens. In an hour-long address on Monday, Mr Putin said modern Ukraine had been "created" by Soviet Russia, referring to the country as "ancient Russian lands". He referred to Russia having been "robbed" during the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, accused Ukraine of being a "US colony" run by a puppet government, and alleged that people were suffering under its current leadership. He painted the 2014 protests which toppled Ukraine's pro-Russia leader as a coup. 'It's unacceptable and unprovoked' The US swiftly condemned Mr Putin's move, and President Joe Biden signed an executive order that prohibits new investment, trade and financing by Americans in the breakaway regions. The White House said the measures were separate to wider Western sanctions which are ready to go "should Russia further invade Ukraine". UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Russia's actions amounted to "a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine" that breaks international law. He said it was "a very ill omen and a very dark sign". He is set to chair a meeting of the government's emergency committee on Tuesday to agree a significant package of sanctions against Russia. The European Union pledged to "react with unity, firmness and with determination in solidarity with Ukraine". Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison rejected the suggestion that Russian troops would have a peacekeeping brief, telling reporters: "It's unacceptable, it's unprovoked, it's unwarranted... some suggestion that they are peacekeeping is nonsense." The move by Vladimir Putin deepens the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, which is surrounded by more than 150,000 Russian troops on its borders. Russia has denied planning to invade, but the US believes an attack is imminent. Both Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with the Russian leader ahead of his announcement. Western powers have rallied behind Ukraine, promising harsh sanctions against Russia if it invades - though it is not yet clear how far the response to this move will go. Putin builds to a showdown This speech was Putin the angry, impatient and directly threatening. It felt like Russia's president was getting 20-odd years of hurt off his chest and hitting back. "You didn't want us to be friends," was how he put it to the West, "but you didn't have to make an enemy of us." There was a lot we've heard before, repackaged for this moment when he knows he has maximum attention. He's clearly ceding no ground on his key security demands: Nato expansion must be rolled back, and Ukrainian membership is a red line. He complained that Russia's concerns had been ignored as irrelevant for years and accused the West of trying to "contain" Russia as a resurgent global force. Mr Putin's focus on Ukraine felt obsessive, like a man who thinks about little else. At times it sounded like a bid to run for president there, it was so detailed. And, of course, there was his re-writing of Ukrainian history, to claim it has never really been a state. In today's context, that had deeply ominous overtones. Recognising the two breakaway regions of Ukraine could mean Russian troops go in openly, very soon - invited as "peacemakers". Or there could be a pause, as Putin waits to see his opponent's next move. In all this, Ukraine is the battleground. But it's also a game of brinkmanship between Russia and the West, rapidly building to a showdown. Groundwork for the controversial decision was laid earlier on Monday, when Mr Putin convened Russia's security council to discuss recognising the self-declared republics as independent. Mr Putin's top officials were called to a podium to deliver their views, each speaking in favour of the move. Monday's televised meeting was not entirely smooth, however. Two officials, during their exchanges with Mr Putin, appeared to reference the possibility to "incorporate" the regions into Russia. On both occasions, Mr Putin corrected them. "We are not talking about that, we are not discussing that," he said, shaking his head in response to one official's use of the phrase. "We are talking about whether to recognise their independence or not."

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Ukraine tensions: Russia to begin military drills with Belarus

Feb 10: Nato says the joint drills mark Russia's biggest deployment to ex-Soviet Belarus since the Cold War. The White House called the drills an "escalatory" action in the tensions over Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly denied any plans to invade Ukraine despite amassing more than 100,000 troops at the border. But some Western countries including the US have warned that a Russian attack could come at any time. In 2014 Russia annexed Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula. Since then there has been a long-running conflict in eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists control swathes of territory and at least 14,000 people have been killed. Some 30,000 Russian troops are expected to take part in the drills with Belarus. Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko is a firm ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin backed Mr Lukashenko when huge protests erupted in Belarus in 2020, while most Western countries imposed sanctions and refused to recognise election results widely believed to have been rigged in the long-time leader's favour. A Kremlin spokesman described the joint drills as serious, saying Russia and Belarus were being "confronted with unprecedented threats". Russia's EU ambassador Vladimir Chizhov, however, told the BBC that his country still believed diplomacy could help de-escalate the crisis over Ukraine. He said Russian troops currently stationed in Belarus would return to their permanent bases after the exercises. White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said: "As we look at the preparation for these military exercises, again, we see this as certainly more an escalatory and not a de-escalatory action." French President Emmanuel Macron said talks on resolving the conflict would be revived as early as Thursday and include Russia and Ukraine along with France and Germany - known as the Normandy quartet. Mr Macron told reporters on Wednesday that Mr Putin had assured him Russian forces would not ramp up the crisis, but Russia said it had given no such guarantee. After two days of intense diplomacy led by Mr Macron, there is some suggestion that a renewed focus on the so-called Minsk agreements - which sought to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine - could be used as a basis to defuse the current crisis. Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany backed the accords in 2014-2015. Some diplomats say the agreements could offer a route to de-escalation, with France's ambassador to the US, Philippe Etienne, tweeting they should be used to "build a viable political solution". UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to travel to Brussels and Warsaw on Thursday in support of Nato allies. Mr Johnson's trip is part of a surge of diplomatic activity, with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace also due to meet their Russian counterparts in Moscow on Thursday. Ahead of the first visit to Russia by a UK foreign secretary in four years, Ms Truss said she was determined to stand up for freedom and democracy in Ukraine and intended to urge Moscow to pursue a diplomatic solution.

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Russia-Ukraine tensions: Powers clash at UN Security Council

FEB1 : US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the mobilisation was the biggest Europe had seen in decades. Her Russian counterpart accused the US of fomenting hysteria and unacceptable interference in Russia's affairs. The US and UK have promised further sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine. UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said legislation was being prepared which would target a wider range than currently of individuals and businesses close to the Kremlin. A US official said Washington's sanctions meant individuals close to the Kremlin would be cut off from the international financial system. At Monday's UN Security Council meeting, Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said there was no proof that Russia was planning military action against Ukraine, and that its troop build-up was not confirmed by the UN. He said Russia often deployed troops on its own territory and that this was none of Washington's business. Russia had tried to block the open session of the UN body but was outvoted by 10 votes to two. The Biden administration was "whipping up tensions and rhetoric, and provoking escalation", Mr Nebenzya said. "This isn't just unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of our state, it's also an attempt to mislead the international community about the true situation in the region and the reasons for the current global tensions," he said. Ms Thomas-Greenfield said the US continued to believe there was a diplomatic solution but warned that the US would act decisively if Russia invaded Ukraine, the consequences of which would be "horrific". "This is the largest... mobilisation of troops in Europe in decades," she said. "And as we speak, Russia is sending even more forces and arms to join them." Moscow was planning to increase its force deployed in neighbouring Belarus, on Ukraine's northern border, to 30,000, she added. Meanwhile diplomatic efforts continue, with Mr Putin speaking by phone to French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday. Moscow wants the West to promise Ukraine will never join the Nato alliance - in which members promise to come to another's aid in the event of an armed attack - but the US has rejected that demand. Nato's 30 members include the US and UK, as well as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - former Soviet republics which border Russia. Moscow sees Nato troops in eastern Europe as a direct threat to its security. Mr Putin has long argued the US broke a guarantee it made in 1990 that Nato would not expand further east, though interpretations differ over exactly what was promised. Russia annexed Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula in 2014. It is also backing rebels who seized large swathes of the eastern Donbas region soon afterwards, and some 14,000 people have died in fighting there.

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Russia-Ukraine tensions: UK warns of plot to install pro-Moscow ally

JAN 23: The Foreign Office took the unusual step of naming former Ukrainian MP Yevhen Murayev as a potential Kremlin candidate. Russia has moved 100,000 troops near to its border with Ukraine but denies it is planning an invasion. UK ministers have warned that the Russian government will face serious consequences if there is an incursion. In a statement, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: "The information being released today shines a light on the extent of Russian activity designed to subvert Ukraine, and is an insight into Kremlin thinking. "Russia must de-escalate, end its campaigns of aggression and disinformation, and pursue a path of diplomacy. "As the UK and our partners have said repeatedly, any Russian military incursion into Ukraine would be a massive strategic mistake with severe costs." Russia has seized Ukrainian territory before, when it annexed Crimea in 2014, after the country overthrew their pro-Russian president. Western and Ukrainian intelligence services have suggested another invasion or incursion could happen some time in early 2022, after Russian forces amassed on the border. Russia has denied it is planning any attack but President Putin has issued demands to the West, including that Ukraine be prevented from joining the Nato military alliance. He also wants Nato to abandon military exercises and stop sending weapons to eastern Europe, seeing this as a direct threat to Russia's security. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted that the Foreign Office was "circulating disinformation" and urged it to "cease these provocative activities" and "stop spreading nonsense". Mr Murayev, a media owner, lost his seat in the Ukrainian parliament when his party failed to secure 5% of the vote in the 2019 elections. He told the Observer newspaper that the Foreign Office "seems confused". "It isn't very logical. I'm banned from Russia. Not only that but money from my father's firm there has been confiscated," Mr Murayev said. The Foreign Office also named four other Ukrainian politicians who it said maintained links with the Russian intelligence services. It said some of the individuals had been in contact with Russian intelligence officers working on an invasion plan. They include Mykola Azarov, who served as prime minister under the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was overthrown in 2014. Mr Azarov then fled to Russia where he established what was widely seen as a puppet government-in-exile. He has been the subject of international sanctions and an Interpol "red notice" issued at the request of the Ukrainian government, for charges including embezzlement and misappropriation. Also named is Volodymyr Sivkovych, the former deputy head of the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council, who was this week made the subject of US sanctions for allegedly working with Russian intelligence. The others are Serhiy Arbuzov and Andriy Kluyev, who both served as deputy prime minister under Mr Yanukovych. Hours after Russia's foreign minister and his US counterpart held what they called "frank" talks to try to reduce the chance of a wider conflict in Ukraine, a US shipment of "lethal aid" arrived in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Saturday. The delivery, including ammunition for "front line defenders", marked the first part of a $200m (£147.5m) security support package approved by US President Joe Biden in December. Earlier, the chairman of the Commons Defence Select Committee warned an invasion could be imminent and said the UK must do more to support Ukraine. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer also called on the government to "protect our values and security" by being "steadfast in our opposition to Russian aggression". Dozens of British troops have been in Ukraine since 2015 to help train their armed forces, and the UK has also made a commitment to help rebuild Ukraine's navy following Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014. Earlier this week, the UK announced it was sending defence weapons and extra troops for training. Nato's 30 members - including the UK, US and several former Soviet Union states which share a border with Russia - agree that an armed attack against one is an attack against them all, and they will come to the aid of one another. What does Putin want? Russia's president has long claimed that the US broke a guarantee it made in 1990 that Nato would not expand further east. "They simply deceived us!" he said at a news conference last month. Interpretations differ over what exactly was promised to the then-Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. But it is clear that Mr Putin believes the guarantee was made. Since then, several central and eastern European countries, which used to be part of the Soviet Union or its sphere of influence, have joined Nato. Four of them - Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - have borders with Russia. Russia argues that this expansion, and the presence of Nato troops and military equipment near its borders, is a direct threat to its security. The country seized and annexed the Crimean peninsula in southern Ukraine in 2014 after Ukrainians overthrew their pro-Russian president. Ever since, Ukraine's military has been locked in a war with Russian-backed rebels in areas of the east near Russia's borders. There are fears that the conflict, which has claimed 14,000 lives and caused at least two million people to flee their homes, may reignite and that Russia's military will cross the border.

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UK supplied Ukraine thousands of light anti-tank missiles amid tensions with Russia

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Russia-Ukraine crisis: UK sending weapons to defend Ukraine, says defence secretary

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UK to withdraw some embassy staff from Ukraine amid growing threat from Russia

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Britain’s inflation rate rose to the highest level in 40 years last month as Russia’s war in Ukraine fueled further increases in food and fuel prices

The British military believes Russia will make a push to try to seize the cities of Kramatorsk and Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine.