Putin could launch invasion of Ukraine "almost immediately", says Liz Truss Vladimir Putin could launch an invasion of Ukraine “almost immediately”, the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has warned after chairing a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee. Truss repeated a call for Britons to leave Ukraine because of the threat of war, PA Media reported. We are fully aware that there could be a Russian invasion almost immediately. That is why British citizens do need to leave Ukraine but we are also pursuing the path of diplomacy and de-escalation. Summary Here’s a roundup of the key developments from the day: Boris Johnson has said the situation in Ukraine is “very, very dangerous” and urged Vladimir Putin to step back from “the edge of a precipice”. The prime minister said the evidence was “pretty clear” that Russia was planning an invasion. Russia’s ambassador to the EU has said Moscow would be within its rights to launch a “counterattack” if it felt it needed to protect Russian citizens living in eastern Ukraine. The comments in an interview with the Guardian will do little to calm fears of a major Russian assault on Ukraine, given one of the key scenarios suggested by western intelligence was Russia launching a “false-flag” operation to provide a pretext for invasion. A Russian attack on Ukraine could arrive with “no notice”, the armed forces minister has warned. Bombs could hit Ukraine within minutes of Vladimir Putin giving the order, James Heappey said during an interview on Sky News. Boris Johnson will travel to Europe later this week as part of intensive diplomatic efforts to bring the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, “back from the brink” of war in Ukraine. The defence secretary, Ben Wallace, and foreign secretary, Liz Truss, are also due to take part in meetings with international counterparts to discuss the crisis, although there were acknowledgements in Whitehall the diplomacy may prove futile if the Kremlin is set on war. The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy gave a joint press conference following their talks in Kyiv earlier today. They stressed the seriousness of the situation as diplomatic talks continue to avoid a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Boris Johnson cut short his UK tour on Monday to return to London as western leaders voiced concerns a Russian invasion of Ukraine could happen imminently, and Liz Truss convened a Cobra meeting to discuss the UK’s consular response. Vladimir Putin could launch an invasion of Ukraine “almost immediately”, the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has warned after chairing a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee. Truss repeated a call for Britons to leave Ukraine because of the threat of war. Families bereaved by Covid want Boris Johnson to relinquish control over which issues will be investigated in the pandemic public inquiry, alleging he is compromised by allegations of lockdown-breaking at Downing Street. The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group fears the current arrangement, where Johnson has a final say over inquiry topics, could allow him to water down examination of his own conduct and that of senior officials. UK ministers and the Scottish government have reached a deal over proposed freeports in Scotland, after months of disagreement over what No 10 has billed as one of the main economic benefits of Brexit. The Scottish government had resisted the idea of freeports – specific areas that offer tax breaks and other incentives to investors – which are intended to revitalise deprived areas but have been accused of encouraging tax avoidance and lower regulation. Keir Starmer has confirmed he received death threats following Boris Johnson’s false claim that he failed to prosecute the paedophile Jimmy Savile. The Labour leader said the prime minister’s slur had “fed into” a “rightwing conspiracy theory”, and this had caused “difficulty”. Thanks so much for joining me today and for all your tweets, emails and comments below the line. Sorry I couldn’t reply to everyone. We’re closing this blog but I’ll be back again tomorrow and we have some other liveblogs which are still live. Russia’s ambassador to the EU has said Moscow would be within its rights to launch a “counterattack” if it felt it needed to protect Russian citizens living in eastern Ukraine. The comments in an interview with the Guardian will do little to calm fears of a major Russian assault on Ukraine, given one of the key scenarios suggested by western intelligence was Russia launching a “false-flag” operation to provide a pretext for invasion. Vladimir Chizhov, who has represented Russia in Brussels since 2005, said: We will not invade Ukraine unless we are provoked to do that. If the Ukrainians launch an attack against Russia, you shouldn’t be surprised if we counterattack. Or, if they start blatantly killing Russian citizens anywhere – Donbas or wherever. Donbas is the region of eastern Ukraine where the Kremlin has armed and funded an insurgency since 2014. It has also, in recent years, handed out hundreds of thousands of Russian passports to residents of two so-called “people’s republics”, which are no longer controlled by Kyiv. More than 14,000 people have been killed in the conflict since 2014. Russia has always denied being a party to the conflict despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Chizhov described claims Russian troops were already in the Donbas region as a “lie” but warned that a sudden escalation of the conflict there, or a Ukrainian “provocation”, could precipitate action by the Kremlin. What I mean by provocation is that they may stage an incident against the self-proclaimed Donbas republics, provoking them, and then hitting them with all their might, thus provoking Russia to react in order to avoid humanitarian catastrophe on its borders. The US government has claimed to have evidence that Moscow is planning just the kind of provocation Chizhov said Kyiv could launch. US officials went public last month with claims they had evidence of a plan to make a “very graphic” fake video of a Ukrainian attack. With an estimated 145,000 Russian troops on the border with Ukraine, intelligence officials in the US said over the weekend that Russia had accelerated plans for an invasion and could move troops across the border as soon as Wednesday. Senior figures in climate diplomacy, including the key architect of the Paris climate agreement, have urged the UK government to maintain its commitments to climate action, amid escalating attacks intended to generate a “culture war” on the net zero target. Laurence Tubiana, the French diplomat who crafted the 2015 Paris agreement, now chief executive of the European Climate Foundation, said: “We are not happy, and we are crossing our fingers [that the UK will reaffirm its net zero commitment]. It’s very important that the UK keeps this direction of travel.” She and other international observers are increasingly worried that the rows over net zero within the UK government, which have seen the Net Zero Scrutiny Group linking the cost-of-living crisis to the carbon reduction agenda, will undermine the progress made last year at the Cop26 UN climate talks. The UK will continue to lead the talks until Egypt takes over at the next summit, Cop27, this November. British leadership will be essential to the success of Cop27, as countries must use the next eight months to revise their national emissions-cutting plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), as they agreed to do at Glasgow. But British diplomats will be hamstrung if rows at home over net zero overshadow their efforts, and if support from key cabinet ministers – including the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, who has barely mentioned Cop26 although it was the biggest diplomatic event on British soil since the second world war – continues to be lukewarm or nonexistent. Boris Johnson cut short his UK tour on Monday to return to London as western leaders voiced concerns a Russian invasion of Ukraine could happen imminently, and Liz Truss convened a Cobra meeting to discuss the UK’s consular response. The foreign secretary will consider whether to change advice to UK diplomats in the country, after the Foreign Office issued new guidance on Friday advising British citizens in Ukraine to leave immediately while commercial flights are still available. No 10 said Johnson would receive an intelligence briefing on his return to London, having been due to visit Cumbria, and will convene another full Cobra meeting on Tuesday. Speaking on a visit to Scotland, Johnson said he would be making immense diplomatic efforts over the coming days including liaising with the US president, Joe Biden. He said that Ukraine’s future membership of Nato could not be “bargained away” as part of western leaders’ efforts. “I think it’s very important that we have a conversation, but what we can’t do is trade away the sovereign rights of the Ukrainians who aspire to Nato membership,” he said. Liz Truss has defended her decision to travel to Moscow to meet her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. The meeting concluded with a testy press conference and claims that the UK foreign secretary had confused two areas of Russia with parts of Ukraine. Truss told reporters: “I went to Russia to deliver a very clear message, which is that it’s Russia who is the aggressor, they have 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border and if they stage an incursion into Ukraine, that would have a damaging effect on the Russian people and the Russian government. “Of course, the Russians didn’t like what I had to say but I say it nevertheless. “And I want them to desist and I want them to be aware that there will be severe costs of an invasion.” Liz Truss has claimed Germany had been “clear” that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline would not go ahead if Russia invaded Ukraine. The US president, Joe Biden, has said the Russia-Germany pipeline, which has been built but is not yet operating, would be stopped if there was an invasion but the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has been less explicit about the situation. Truss said: The Germans, and indeed the Americans, have been very clear that Nord Stream 2 would not go ahead in the event of a Russian incursion on Ukraine. The prime minister is right, we do need to reduce dependence on Russian gas in Europe and find alternative sources. Russian oligarchs would be targeted with “severe” sanctions if Russia invaded Ukraine, she said. The foreign secretary said she still hoped for a diplomatic solution, telling reporters: “That is why the prime minister and I are travelling around Europe this week, that is why we are working to persuade the Russians to remove their troops from the border, because a war would be disastrous.” But she added: We are very clear that Russia is the aggressor in this situation. They have 100,000 troops lined up on the Ukrainian borders. They need to de-escalate because it will be a cost to Russia if they invade Ukraine, both in terms of the cost of a long-running war, but also the sanctions that we would impose, which would be severe, and would target oligarchs and it would target companies across Russia. Putin could launch invasion of Ukraine "almost immediately", says Liz Truss Vladimir Putin could launch an invasion of Ukraine “almost immediately”, the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has warned after chairing a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee. Truss repeated a call for Britons to leave Ukraine because of the threat of war, PA Media reported. We are fully aware that there could be a Russian invasion almost immediately. That is why British citizens do need to leave Ukraine but we are also pursuing the path of diplomacy and de-escalation. German chancellor stresses important of de-escalating Ukraine tensions The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy gave a joint press conference following their talks in Kyiv earlier today. They stressed the seriousness of the situation as diplomatic talks continue to avoid a Russian invasion of Ukraine. The German chancellor said Germany stands closely by Ukraine’s side and is impressed with the country’s democratic movement. Scholz says “no other country has supported Ukraine as much financially as Germany”, and has just announced that €150m will be paid out to Ukraine with immediate effect, with a new credit of another €150m. He says Germany has been training Ukrainian soldiers and treating injured civilians, and that “the sovereignty and territorial independence of Ukraine are non-negotiable”. Scholz has promised to emphasise the consequences of an invasion when he is in Moscow tomorrow: If Russia again violates the territorial integrity of Ukraine, we will know what to do … There’s one central challenge: to de-escalate the situation and for troops to draw back. Zelenskiy, meanwhile, said they had spoken about sanctions and the importance of preventative measures and added that “Ukraine’s security is the security of all of Europe”. Here’s Boris Johnson’s response when asked about the death threats Keir Starmer has been getting after the prime minister falsely accused him of failing to prosecute Savile while he was director of public prosecutions. He doesn’t seem to be taking the issue too seriously. My colleague Dan Sabbagh, the Guardian’s defence and security editor, has tweeted some key questions on the Ukraine/Russia crisis. The prime minister condemns death threats received by Keir Starmer over the Jimmy Savile row, Downing Street has said. Starmer said on Monday that Boris Johnson’s claims he failed to prosecute Savile while he was director of public prosecutions had “fed into” a “rightwing conspiracy theory”, and this had caused “difficulty”. The Labour leader confirmed he received death threats in the wake of the jibe. Asked if Johnson condemned the threats, the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “Yes.” He added: “Any sort of death threats to politicians are never acceptable.” Downing Street said Boris Johnson has no role in the appointment of the next Metropolitan police commissioner. The prime minister’s official spokesman said: As (you’ll) be aware, he doesn’t have a role in this appointment. The commissioner is appointed by Her Majesty on recommendation by the home secretary, who has a statutory duty to give regard to the views of the mayor of London. Pressed on whether there was any situation in which the prime minister might offer “advice or counsel” on the matter, the spokesman said: He doesn’t have a role in the appointment, you would expect the prime minister to be notified of the home secretary’s decision but beyond that he doesn’t have a role. Downing Street said British nationals should not expect a “military airlift” from Ukraine. The PM’s official spokesman said: British nationals should leave the Ukraine via commercial means and there are still flights available. They should not expect a military airlift from the country. "No sign" Russia will back down amid crisis over Ukraine, says Downing Street Downing Street said there has been “no sign” Russia will “back down” amid the crisis on the Ukrainian border. The PM’s official spokesman said: It’s certainly true that we have seen no sign so far that Russia will back down. There are more than 130,000 Russian troops on the border with the Ukraine and we are gravely concerned. But we will continue to explore every possible avenue to talk Russia back from this path. Parliament could be recalled if Russia invades Ukraine this week, the spokesman said. Asked if this was a possibility, the PM’s official spokesman said: While I wouldn’t get into a hypothetical, obviously we would discuss that with the Speaker – and in that situation you would expect that the prime minister would want parliament to be updated and for it to have its say. He said such discussions with the speaker had not yet taken place. Downing Street said the prime minister’s responses to his police questionnaire would not be made public. On whether Boris Johnson had returned his questionnaire yet, the PM’s official spokesman said: As we said on Friday, we will respond as required. As you know, I think the Met made clear that that was in seven days, so we will comply with that requirement. Asked if the responses would be made public, the spokesman said: “No.” Foreign secretary to chair Cobra meeting in response to Ukraine crisis On today’s Cobra meeting, a No 10 spokesman said: This afternoon the foreign secretary will chair a (Cobra) meeting to discuss the consular response to the crisis in Ukraine following Friday’s update to travel advice. The prime minister will receive a security briefing from his intelligence chiefs today. Tomorrow the prime minister will chair a full meeting of (Cobra) to discuss the UK’s response to the current situation. The foreign secretary, Liz Truss, will chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee on Monday to discuss the consular response to the Ukraine crisis, it has been announced.