Boris Johnson said that Britain and her allies would continue to supply Ukrainians with weapons to defend their homeland.
On 8 March, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed by video link a full House of Commons, he detailed 13 days since 28 February when the war in his country began; he invoked Churchill and Shakespeare in his determination to preserve the sovereignty of Ukraine. The President expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he requested increased sanctions and asked him to ensure the Ukrainian skies were safe, Zelensky’s emotional appeal received a standing ovation from MPs across the House. The Prime Minister replied that Britain and her allies would continue to supply Ukrainians with weapons to defend their homeland. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng followed up with UK’s phasing out of Russian oil imports by the end of 2022. Russian imports account for 8% of total UK oil demand, the UK is a producer of both crude oil and petroleum products as well as importing from a diverse range of suppliers beyond Russia including the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, and USA. UK is not dependent on Russian natural gas, it makes up less than 4% of supply.
However, Boris Johnson did not directly respond to keeping Ukrainian skies safe. Instead Defence Secretary Ben Wallace announced the Government are exploring donating Starstreak high-velocity, man-portable anti-air missiles that will allow the Ukrainian forces to better defend their skies, in addition to the 3,615 NLAWs portable anti-tank weapons have already been delivered with a small consignment of anti-tank Javelin still missiles to come. UK will increase its funding for Ukraine to £220 million, which includes £120 million of humanitarian aid.
Defending the Ukrainian skies has been a bit confusing this week, on 6 March US Secretary Antony Blinken appeared to give NATO members a green light to send fighter jets to Ukraine. Following Zelenskyy’s address in Parliament Poland spontaneously announced they would send Polish MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, then it was understood these would go to Ramstein airbase in Germany, possibly in exchange for US F-16s. But the Pentagon did not want the MiGs on US territory and that the transfer to Ramstein would be “escalatory and high risk”, the offer from Warsaw was politely declined. This appears to show a lack of up to the minute coordination and commitment between European countries and US.
UK seems to be the most committed to Ukraine’s aspiration to join NATO, but NATO only seems to welcome member’s third party efforts to support Ukraine in their fight for independence. Earlier Zelensky had said in an interview with ABC that he feels “cooler” towards NATO after realizing the alliance will not accept Ukraine.
In the light of this Boris Johnson is developing bi-lateral relationships with EU member states especially the Visegrad4, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki; each in their own way is seeking to end the conflict in their neighbourhood, primarily through reducing their dependence on fossil fuels from Russia, and “a joint commitment to strengthen collective cyber resilience, coordinate approaches on cyber governance, and respond to and deter malicious cyber activities, including the spread of disinformation.”
Also, Johnson has recently spoken with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and the leaders of France, Germany, and the United States about applying pressure on Russia to isolate Putin diplomatically and economically. The Prime Minister stressed UK’s goal must be to ensure Putin’s failure in the act of aggression against Ukraine.
Doubling down on his economic war on Russia Johnson and Transport Secretary Grant Schapps have sanctioned the owner of Chelsea Football Club Roman Abramovich, industrialist Oleg Deripaska of EN+, Igor Sechin of Rosneft, Andrey Kostin of VTB Bank, Alexei Miller of Gazprom, Nikolai Tokarev of Transnet and Dmitri Lebedev of Bank Rossiya, all thought to be Putin’s inner circle.
The upcoming Economic Crime Bill will allow the UK Government to move more sanctions this coming week. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss ended her February statement with “In Britain – and around the world – we’re prepared to suffer economic sacrifices to support you (Ukraine)”, UK’s fuel prices already reflect this.
Truss has introduced new aviation sanctions to detain Russian aircraft and remove aircraft belonging to designated individuals and entities from the UK register. Additional trade measures will prevent UK exports of aviation or space-related items and technology to Russia, including related services such as insurance and reinsurance services.
Following Truss’s encouragement to British citizens to go and fight in Ukraine, Former Defence Minister Penny Mordaunt is running an appeal for tactical gear/ration packs and financial donations, which includes information for those with specific skills who may wish to join the fight with Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Home Secretary Priti Patel got off to a slow start accepting Ukrainian refugees into UK, as usual the bureaucratic criteria necessary for a visa were extravagant, as no consular assistance is provided in Ukraine the application centre is inconveniently situated miles out of the way, in Lille. In what is being seen as a joint Home Office and FCDO fail, the number of refuges accepted in other European countries has embarrassed Britain. The PM has now appointed Richard Harrington as Minister for Refugees.
President Zelenskyy has emerged as a national and international hero in the style of Che Guevara; world leaders are scrambling to save their economies as Boris Johnson declares “Putin must fail”, but will all the above intentions and sanctions be sufficient to deter the Russian President. Not all world powers and commentators see the situation in the same black and white terms. Lionel Barber in The Spectator asks “What if Putin has not miscalculated, but the West has?” Barber proposes China play a mediating and reconstruction role. FCDO Minister James Cleverly and Minister for Asia Amanda Milling have expressed they are expecting diplomacy and possibly interlocution from China.
In February China and Russia entered into a friendship with no limits, the joint statement declared “that the new inter-State relations between Russia and China are superior to political and military alliances of the Cold War-era”.
After all the parliamentary debate around China’s hegemony and the ongoing strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific, is China the only intervener capable of upholding a liberal democracy and halting European destabilisation, while at the same time China would be supplying all the goods and services to Russia that the West took away?
On the other hand, seeming to recognise the significance of India’s neutral position Ukrainian MP Sviatoslav Yurash said “India is one of those countries which will decide the fate of this century.
As far as the Indian position on Russian relationship is concerned, thankful for the call PM Modi made to our President. We’re thankful for humanitarian steps India has been making.”