‘No time for false comfort’ as Truss meets Nato ministers over Ukraine

The UK is considering sending armoured vehicles to aid the Ukrainian forces, according to reports

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss at Nato headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on April 6. AFPShow less

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Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has told Nato there was “no time for false comfort” over a reduction in Russian attacks on Ukraine as she is expected to push the defensive alliance to keep up pressure on the Kremlin.

New UK sanctions were announced on Wednesday against Russian banks and oligarchs, which Ms Truss said were among the toughest yet.

The Times reported that the UK was considering sending armoured vehicles to aid the Ukrainian forces.

But senior Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood said the government should stop saying the aid being offered was defensive and focus on providing more help instead of semantics.

The UK and Nato allies have been wary to insist that any help offered to Ukraine allows the country to defend itself against the Russian invasion, to avoid being drawn into a direct conflict with Moscow.

But the Czech Republic has reportedly become the first Nato country to promise to send tanks for Ukraine to fight the Russians.

Mr Ellwood, the House of Commons defence select committee chairman, told Channel 4 News there was “nothing defensive” about the weapons already provided to Ukraine.

“There’s nothing defensive about anti-tank weapons, there’s nothing defensive about a rifle," he said. "These are offensive weapons and I can’t believe we’re still having semantic debates about this.

“We see the Czech Republic now wanting to give tanks. That’s what the Ukrainians are asking for. Poland wanted to move its MiG-29s [fighter jets] across as well.

"This is the sort of activity that we need to be looking at.”

Mr Ellwood said the UK could be providing a humanitarian corridor from the port of Odesa through to international waters.

“That would be a robust stance to take against Russia,” he said.

Nato foreign ministers meet in Brussels to discuss the latest in the continuing Russia-Ukraine war. AFP

People take part in a protest against the transport of cargo to Russia and Belarus near the Polish-Belarusian border crossing in Koroszczyn, eastern Poland. EPA

A Ukrainian naval vessel, thought to be the ‘Donbas’ and a nearby building burn in the besieged city of Mariupol. AP

Bucha resident Tetiana Ustymenko weeps over the grave of her son, buried in the garden of her house, in Bucha, north-west of Kyiv. AFP

People charge their mobile phones in a public building in Bucha. AFP

People from Mariupol leave a train to be taken to temporary residences in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. AP

Vladyslava Liubarets, a Bucha resident, cries as she hugs her sister whom she had not seen since the beginning of the Russian invasion, in Bucha, the town which was retaken by the Ukrainian army. EPA

Local citizen Oleksandr, 55, looks at the grave of his neighbour in the backyard of his private house in Hostomel in Kyiv. EPA

Debris of a rocket missile on the field near Kyiv. EPA

The mother of Ukrainian soldier Lubomyr Hudzeliak, who was killed during Russia's invasion of Ukraine, mourns during his funeral in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. AFP

A woman takes care of a baby at a shelter in the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk in Donbas region. AFP

Residents gather outside a shelter in the city of Severodonetsk. AFP

Residents in eastern Ukraine, including the city of Severodonetsk in Donbas region, have been asked by their government to leave 'now' or 'risk death'. AFP

A young girl with her dog arrives at a centre for the displaced in Zaporizhzhia, north-west of Mariupol. AFP

A damaged ambulance in Hostomel, on the outskirts of Kyiv. Reuters

A bomb crater left behind by Russia's attack on the Ukrainian village of Demydiv, on the outskirts of Kyiv. Reuters

Russian attacks have reduced Hotel Ukraine in Chernihiv to debris. Reuters

Oleksii Shcherbo, 98, near his burnt house in the village of Sloboda, on the outskirts of Chernihiv. Reuters

Residents walk past destroyed Russian military machinery on the street, in Bucha, the town which was retaken by the Ukrainian army, north-west of Kyiv. EPA

Damaged National flags flutter in the wind on a cemetry of Chernihiv city which was blocked by Russian troops for a long time. EPA

Demonstrators lie down on the ground in tribute to the people killed in Russia's war against Ukraine, in Berlin, Germany. AP

A Ukrainian firefighter works at the site of a burning fuel storage facility ignited by an air strike, in Dnipropetrovsk. Reuters

A woman before and after she was removed by rescuers from debris after a military strike on the town of Rubizhne, Luhansk. Reuters

People wait for help to evacuate Derhachi. Reuters

Pope Francis, in Vatican, holds a Ukrainian flag given to him by a delegation from the town of Bucha, where dozens of bodies had been found. EPA

State emergency servicemen clear shells near Chernigiv, northern Ukraine. AFP

US war veteran Steven Straub shows his tattoo of the Ukrainian flag while on patrol near Buda-Babynetska, north of Kyiv, days after Russian forces retreated from the area. AFP

Candles are arranged in the shape of Ukraine by the monument to the poet Taras Shevchenko in the western city Lviv. AFP

A teddy bear hangs from a tree branch outside an apartment building in Borodyanka, Kyiv oblast. AP

A woman carries her cat as she walks past buildings that were destroyed by Russian shelling, in Borodyanka. Reuters

Dmitriy Evtushkov, 25, points to his picture in a primary school album retrieved from the rubble of a block of flats. AP

Technicians try to fix the internet in Bucha. AP

A smashed mobile phone lies next to a Russian army ration book in Bucha. AP

A woman and children after their arrival at a centre for displaced persons in Zaporizhzhia, about 200 kilometres north-west of Mariupol. AFP

A man leaves a damaged pharmacy after a bombing that killed several civilians, in Mykolaiv. AP

Ukrainian soldiers sing a patriotic song with buildings in the background that were destroyed during fighting in Borodyanka. AP

Borodyanka residents carry humanitarian aid packages. Reuters

Elderly Ukrainians shelter in a basement in Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine. EPA

Destroyed apartment buildings in Borodyanka. Reuters

Relatives and friends are overwhelmed with emotions as they stand next to the coffin of Anatoly German during his funeral. AP

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed that some members of the alliance had sent heavy weapons to Ukraine after the reports that the Czech Republic had supplied Soviet-era tanks to Kyiv.

The Times reported that plans were being drawn up that could see armoured vehicles from the UK sent to Ukraine, with British troops stationed in a neighbouring country to provide training.

At a working dinner on Wednesday, Ms Truss told Nato foreign ministers that the defensive alliance must toughen its response and not allow security vacuums to emerge.

“The age of engagement with Russia is over," she said. "We need a new approach to security in Europe based on resilience, defence and deterrence.

"There is no time for false comfort. Russia is not retreating, but regrouping and repositioning to push harder in the east and south of Ukraine."

Ms Truss said the 1997 Nato-Russia Founding Act, in which it was declared the two sides “do not consider each other as adversaries”, was dead.

Earlier, she announced new sanctions with asset freezes imposed on Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, and the Credit Bank of Moscow.

All new outward investment to Russia has been banned and the UK has also committed to end all imports of Russian coal and oil by the end of the year, with gas to follow as soon as possible.

Imports of Russian iron and steel products will be banned and another eight oligarchs have been added to the sanctions list.

Ms Truss said they were “some of our toughest sanctions yet”.

The announcement coincided with a move against Sberbank by the US, which is also imposing sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s two adult daughters, Mariya Putina and Katerina Tikhonova, and other members of the Russian elite.

Earlier the European Commission set out proposals for a fifth round of sanctions, including a ban on coal imports, for approval by EU ambassadors.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the actions of Russian forces in Ukraine appeared close to “genocide”.

“I’m afraid, when you look at what’s happening in Bucha, the revelations that we are seeing from what Putin has done in Ukraine, which doesn’t look far short of genocide to me, it is no wonder people are responding in the way that they are,” Mr Johnson said during a visit to a hospital in Welwyn Garden City.

Western officials warned such atrocities may be “widespread”, pointing to the “toxic information climate” in Russia with calls for the “de-Nazification” of Ukraine, with former president Dmitri Medvedev, still a close ally of Mr Putin, likening it to the Third Reich.

“When you combine that with a force that is failing and failing badly in an operation for which it was perhaps psychologically underprepared, it is just a toxic mix,” one official said.

“The responsibility for this lies with the perpetrators of the acts but it also lies with the Russian leadership. Not only did they order the invasion, they set the tone and the context for this operation as well.”

Ministers from Nato countries are set to meet in Brussels on Thursday.