Notes

UK will not look away from Russia invasion in Ukraine PM
Ukrainian banks and government websites were hit with a spate of cyber attacks last week prior to the deployment of Russian troops to Luhansk and Donetsk. Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation said the attacks have continued since the full invasion. The US is planning to station nuclear weapons in the UK for the first time in 15 years amid a growing threat from Russia, according to a report. Warheads three times as strong as the Hiroshima bomb would be located at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk under the proposals, the Telegraph reported.


Hungary and Slovakia both say they are ready to welcome refugees and are sending extra troops to manage the likely influx at additional crossings set up on their borders with Ukraine. The defence alliance, which counts the UK, US and many European countries as members, has also condemned Belarus for "enabling" the attack. But that troops being sent to Europe "would defend Nato allies" - which includes countries like Poland who share a border with Ukraine.

US to station nuclear weapons in UK to counter threat from Russia
Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the defence select committee, said the West had failed to alter the trajectory of the Russian invasion. Mr Putin also urged Ukrainian soldiers in the combat zone in the east of the country to lay down their weapons and return to their homes, warning that Moscow's response would be "instant" if anyone tried to take on Russia. At least seven people are known to have been killed by Russian shelling, including civilians. A Ukrainian presidential adviser said that more than 40 soldiers had died and dozens more were wounded, but this has not been independently confirmed. He chaired an emergency Cobra meeting earlier and will give a televised statement later on the UK's response to Russia's "unprovoked attack". Satellite imagery suggests Russia is sending troops towards its border with Ukraine.

A prominent war expert says the US is on the verge of lessening its support for, or even withdrawing from, NATO - with potentially catastrophic consequences for Europe. Warheads three times as strong as the Hiroshima bomb would be located at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk under the proposals, the Daily Telegraph reported. Nato members are more likely to try to bed down and endure a Trump presidency as they did from 2016. Russia’s invasion caused international stock markets to drop dramatically, with the FTSE 100 in London falling by 3.2 per cent. We assume that wages do not rise to compensate for this bout of higher inflation which is driven by external forces.
Nato says its forces are on standby and more ships and fighter jets are being sent to the region. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says Nato will “continue to take all necessary measures to protect and defend all allies”. Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko plays down their significance, saying they are “normal exercises”. Russia says the crisis can only be solved if the West agrees to a list of demands, including a guarantee that Ukraine will never join Nato.

Russia attack on Ukraine catastrophe for Europe, say Boris Johnson
The memorandum is not a treaty and lawyers dispute whether it is legally enforceable. But it is a formal, public and written commitment by the UK to support Ukraine. In 1994, the UK - along with the US - signed a memorandum at an international conference in Budapest promising "to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine".

But the House speaker, Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said the legislation would be “dead on arrival in the House” in its current form, according to a letter to Republican lawmakers. Planning for warfare, a remote contingency, is what militaries do and there is always pressure from generals and defence ministries to spend more. It also wants Nato to withdraw its forces from most Eastern European countries. The revival of NATO’s purpose and a unified western response have been a necessary if painful reminder of where UK interests truly lie. He said the UK's "baffling" decision to hold back sanctions until after Russia's incursion into Ukraine had not deterred Mr Putin. He also tried to reassure the British public by promising to do "everything to keep our country safe" and work with allies "for however long it takes" to restore Ukraine's independence.
He said the UK's "baffling" decision to hold back sanctions until after Russia's incursion into Ukraine had not deterred Mr Putin. The only airlines still flying from the UK, Wizz Air and Ryanair, have suspended all flights to the country. He said on Twitter he would also speak to his fellow G7 leaders and called for an urgent meeting of all Nato leaders as soon as possible. Mr Putin has insisted he does not plan to occupy Ukraine, but Ukraine has branded it a "full-scale invasion". Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a "catastrophe for our continent", Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said. Russia says some of its troops are being withdrawn from areas near the Ukraine border - but Nato says it can see no evidence of a withdrawal.


Prime Minster Boris Johnson says that after 4am UK time he spoke to President Zelensky of Ukraine to offer the support of the UK. Even though an attack of some kind has been expected for several months there is still a widespread sense of shock about what has happened around the world. Russian forces launched a major military assault on Ukraine on Thursday morning, with reports of missile strikes and explosions near major cities.


But European nations closer to Russian borders appear to be taking it more seriously. Germany's Defence Minister, Boris Pistorius, recently told a German newspaper "we have to take into account that Vladimir Putin might even attack a Nato country one day". While he said such an attack is unlikely now, "our experts expect a period of five to eight years in which this could be possible". I offer my condolences and that of the UK to all Ukrainians for the lives lost due to these barbaric airstrikes.

Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, this month repeated that the UK wants to increase defence spending from 2.1% of GDP to 2.5% in the future. The chief of general staff highlighted the example of Sweden, which has just reintroduced a form of national service as it closes in on joining Nato. The US and UK have also been carrying out air strikes in the Red Sea against Yemen’s Houthi rebels, the Iran-backed militia which have been attacking container ships in purported retaliation for Israel’s military offensive in Gaza. Here’s how the war will affect the UK, from potential military action to sanctions and gas prices. Boris Pistorius, the German defence minister, gave an interview last week suggesting that while a Russian attack was not likely for now “our experts expect a period of five to eight years in which this could be possible”. At the press conference he said the US would be introducing new sanctions to "maximise long-term impact on Russia" but said US forces would not be engaging in the conflict with Russia in Ukraine.
Ukraine said on Friday that Russia had returned the bodies of 77 soldiers, the AFP news agency reports, days after the crash of a Russian military transport plane threw doubt on the future of such exchanges. A 13-year-old girl died today from injuries sustained in the Russian shelling of her village in the Kharkiv oblast earlier this month, said Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional state administration. Joe Biden is pressing Congress to embrace a bipartisan Senate deal to pair border enforcement measures with aid for Ukraine. Only https://euronewstop.co.uk/how-many-ukrainian-refugees-are-in-the-uk.html deployed to protect energy facilities, or those carrying top Russian or foreign officials, will be allowed to fly with special permission in the designated zones, according to the Vedomosti daily newspaper. "A frank and constructive dialogue is expected to improve relations between states," the Ukrainian president's office said on its official channel on the Telegram messaging app alongside a photo of Mr Szijjarto, Mr Kuleba and Mr Yermak. Mr Szijarto will be in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba and presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak.

Many analysts say Beijing in particular is looking on as it formulates its own plans to reunify Taiwan with mainland China. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been highly critical of the EU's financial and military aid for Ukraine and has maintained close ties with Russia. Russian-backed rebels control areas of eastern Ukraine near Russia's borders in a conflict which has cost an estimated 14,000 lives. But this was followed up with missile attacks, using different kinds of weapons in a bid to overwhelm and break through the city's defences. Downing Street said the leaders agreed that if a further Russian incursion took place, "allies must enact swift retributive responses including an unprecedented package of sanctions".
Finland, Nato's newest member and a country which has an 800-mile border with Russia, has wider conscription. Refusal can mean a jail sentence, though there is the option of civilian service out of uniform too. There is a sense in the upper echelons of the British military that many politicians and most of the public have not grasped the threat they see. It is the duty of the military to analyse that threat, and they still might be proved wrong.


Since 2014, Russian-backed separatists and Ukraine's armed forces have been fighting a war in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in which more than 14,000 people have died. Russian forces have launched a full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, attacking locations across the country. Mr Johnson was among leaders of the G7 group of wealthy nations who met to discuss the situation.

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