British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says evidence suggests that Russia is planning ‘the biggest war in Europe since 1945’.
He said in an interview with the BBC yesterday: ‘All the signs are that the plan has already in some senses begun.’
The prime minister said that if there were an invasion Britain would bring in even more far-reaching sanctions against Russia than had been suggested earlier. He said that the UK and the US would stop Russian companies ‘trading in pounds and dollars’ – a move that he said would ‘hit very very hard’.
Johnson said intelligence suggested that Russia intended to launch an invasion that would encircle the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
‘People need to understand the sheer cost in human life that could entail,’ he said.
The British leader was speaking from Munich, where world leaders were meeting for an annual security conference.
According to the BBC, the latest estimates by the US government suggests that between 169 000 and 190 000 Russian troops are now stationed along Ukraine’s border, both in Russia and neighbouring Belarus – but this figure also includes rebels in eastern Ukraine.
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