UK ready to provide more troops to Nato if Russia invades Ukraine

Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Russian security proposals 'would divide our continent once again'

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  An instructor trains members of Ukraine's Territorial Defence Forces, volunteer military units of the armed forces, in the capital Kiev. AP

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  Dozens of civilians have been joining Ukraine's army reserves in recent weeks amid fears about a Russian invasion. AP

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  US President Joe Biden, centre, meets online with his national security team and senior officials to discuss Russia's actions towards Ukraine. AP

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  A member of the US Air Force packs ammunition, weapons and other equipment bound for Ukraine, at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. Reuters

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  A Ukrainian soldier stationed in the trenches at the front line with Russia-backed separatists near Gorlivka, Donetsk. AFP

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  Rising tension about Russia’s military build-up on the Ukraine border was not eased during talks on Friday between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva. AFP

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  A Ukrainian soldier pets a dog in a trench at the front line. AFP

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  A Ukrainian soldier walks near the line of separation from Russian-backed rebels in the Donetsk region. Reuters

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  Activists hold an EU flag and posters as they gather in support of Ukraine at the Ukrainian embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia. AP

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  The Russian embassy in London. Reuters

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  Supporters of Ukrainian sovereignty arrive with a Ukrainian flag before holding a protest on the Peace Bridge in Calgary, Canada. Reuters

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  People rallying in patriotic support of Ukraine hold a 500-metre ribbon in the colours of the Ukrainian flag outside St Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery on Unity Day, in Kiev. Getty Images

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  A woman attends the patriotic rally in Kiev. There are now more than 120,000 Russian troops posted on the border along with significant numbers of tanks, artillery and missile batteries. Getty Images

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  A woman wearing a face mask in the colours of the Ukrainian flag stands at the Wall of Remembrance in Kiev, which shows the photographs, names and birth and death dates of approximately 4,500 soldiers who have died fighting for Ukraine in the Donbas conflict. Approximately 13,000 people have died in the war. Getty Images

Boris Johnson says the UK would be prepared to send extra troops to any new Nato deployments “to protect our allies in Europe” if Russia were to invade Ukraine.

He reiterated, as have many western nations, that the UK would toughen its sanctions regime against Russia if it were to attack Ukraine.

About 100,000 Russian troops are massed on its border with Ukraine, leading to fears in some western capitals that an invasion is imminent.

“We have to beware of doing things … that would constitute a pretext for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to invade,” Mr Johnson told parliament.

“We have to calculate and calibrate what we do very carefully and I think building a strong package of economic sanctions, continuing to supply defensive weaponry, and all the other things that we're doing – that's the right package.”

On Monday, Nato member states sent reinforcements to eastern Europe to bolster its forces there. Russia has criticised the West’s response as hysteria and insists it has no invasion plans.

“If the worst happens, and the destructive firepower of the Russian army were to engulf Ukraine’s towns and cities I shudder to contemplate the tragedy that would ensue,” Mr Johnson said.

“Ukrainians have every moral and legal right to defend their country and I believe their resistance would be dogged and tenacious, and the bloodshed comparable to the first war in Chechnya or Bosnia, or any other conflict that Europe has endured since 1945. No one would gain from such a catastrophe.”

High-level diplomatic meetings between Russia and the West have so far failed to make headway.

Moscow has demanded several highly controversial security guarantees from Nato, including a ban on Ukraine joining the military alliance. That has been rejected out of hand by Nato, with Mr Johnson saying the proposals “would divide our continent once again".

“We cannot bargain away the vision of a Europe whole and free that emerged in those amazing years from 1989 to 1991,” Mr Johnson said, referring to the fall of the Iron Curtain, the end of Communist rule in eastern Europe and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

“Healing the division of our continent by the Iron Curtain, we will not reopen that divide by agreeing to overturn the European security order because Russia has placed a gun to Ukraine's head.”

Russia has already invaded Ukraine once, annexing the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. It also backed pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists fighting the Kiev government in the Donbass region.

Referring to when he spoke to Mr Putin in December, Mr Johnson said he had emphasised that Nato has no thought of encircling or threatening Russia.

“I said that any attack on his neighbour would be followed by tougher sanctions against Russia, further steps to help Ukraine defend herself and by an increased Nato presence to protect our allies on Nato’s eastern flank.”