Boris Johnson promises massive sanctions to ‘hobble’ Russian economy

Boris Johnson has said that “a vast invasion is under way, by land, by sea and by air” in Ukraine, as he promised to impose “massive” sanctions that would “hobble” the Russian economy.

Speaking as world leaders scrambled to respond to the attacks that began early on Thursday, the UK prime minister said Russia had “attacked a friendly country without any provocation and without any credible excuse”.

He said Russia must not be allowed to succeed. “Diplomatically, politically, economically, and eventually militarily, this hideous and barbaric adventure of Vladimir Putin must end in failure,” he said.

Johnson said Ukraine had for decades been a free country, able to determine its own destiny. “We and the world cannot allow that freedom just to be snuffed out. We cannot and will not just look away.

“This act of wanton and reckless aggression is an attack not just on Ukraine. It is an attack on democracy and freedom in eastern Europe and around the world,” he said.

In a deliberate reference to Neville Chamberlain, the prime minister remembered for underestimating Hitler’s murderous intentions in the 1930s, Johnson said Ukraine was “not in the infamous phrase some faraway country of which we know little”.

Chamberlain used those words when Germany was allowed to annex the Sudetenland – then part of Czechoslovakia – in 1938, in exchange for a promise of peace.

In contrast, Johnson said “we have Ukrainian friends in this country; neighbours, co-workers”, telling the Ukrainian people: “We are with you, we are praying for you and your families and we are on your side.”

Johnson also made a direct appeal to the Russian people, saying: “I cannot believe this is being done in your name or that you really want the pariah status it will bring to the Putin regime.”

The prime minister said the details of financial sanctions would be coordinated with the UK’s international allies.

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He called for the west to end its dependence on Russian oil and gas as part of its response to the crisis. Oil and gas prices have rocketed in response to the attacks, auguring a sharp increase in fuel and domestic energy prices in the UK.

Johnson gave the televised statement after a meeting of the government’s emergency Cobra committee at 7.30am. He is expected to join a meeting of G7 leaders later, before addressing MPs at 5pm to set out details of the sanctions package.

Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said the sanctions should leave the Putin regime isolated, “its finances frozen, its ability to function crippled”.

He called for Johnson to “make a clean break with the failed approach” to handling the Russian leader, saying that Nato responses to past incursions into Georgia, Crimea and Donbas had “fed his belief that the benefits of aggression outweigh the cost”.

Starmer also called for the UK to stop being “a safe haven for the money that Putin and his fellow bandits gained by stealing from the Russian people”. He added: “This must be a turning point in our history. We must look back and say that this terrible day was actually when Putin doomed himself to defeat.”

Meanwhile, an acrimonious meeting was held in Whitehall after the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, summoned Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin.

A UK Foreign Office source said Kelin “spouted the usual propaganda” but that Truss was “having none of it” and told him he “should be ashamed of himself”. The source added the foreign secretary had told Kelin the international community would “rally around Ukraine” and that Russia had turned itself into “an international pariah”.

Johnson faced criticism from across the political spectrum earlier this week for introducing a package of sanctions many MPs, including in his own party, felt were too weak.

Tom Tugendhat suggested the limited sanctions announced on Monday may have encouraged the Russian president. “What that did, I’m afraid, was it didn’t deter, but encouraged, because it gave the suggestion or made clear that we weren’t wiling to do anything serious,” the chair of the foreign affairs select committee told the BBC’s Today programme.

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