Portsmouth MP Penny Mordaunt launches scathing attack on President Putin amid fears Russia will invade Ukraine as HMS Diamond is set to join Nato fleet in Mediterranean

Boris Johnson warned that a Russian incursion across the border into Ukraine ‘could be the biggest war in Europe’ since the Second World War, with casualties on both sides.

The crisis is reaching boiling point, with intelligence sources saying the 150,000 Russian troops massed on Ukraine’s borders could launch an attack ‘at any time’.

Military forces from Portsmouth have already been scrambled to help bolster up Nato’s presence around Europe, with Type 45 destroyer HMS Diamond set to join patrol ship HMS Trent in the eastern Mediterranean as part of a naval flotilla in the region.

Although, it is not expected that the hundreds of Portsmouth sailors would be involved in any direct conflict, if war did erupt.

However, that hasn’t stopped the stern political war of words from continuing with Penny Mordaunt, Portsmouth North MP, tonight launching a scathing attack on president Putin.

Speaking to The News, the trade minister and former defence secretary, insisted Britain would ‘support Ukraine’.

Describing how disastrous an invasion could be, she added: ‘I doubt that Putin cares about the lives of Russian armed forces or hardships his country might face.

‘To invade would be an appalling act, and sadly Putin’s propaganda points to him having designs elsewhere too.

‘Ukrainians are brave people and will fight hard for their freedom. We will support them.’Boris Johnson said that it appeared Moscow’s plan for an offensive had ‘already in some senses begun’, pointing to the escalation of violence in Russian-backed separatist-held areas in eastern Ukraine.

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The UK has pledged support for Kyiv through armed forces training and by sending anti-tank weapons, but Mr Johnson said, given Ukraine is not a Nato member, sanctions would be the main focus in terms of hurting Russia in the event of an invasion.

He admitted that even a joint venture by Britain and the US to prevent Russian state-linked firms from trading in pounds and dollars – a move he predicted would hit the Kremlin ‘very hard’ – may ‘not be enough on its own’.

He told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme: ‘We have to accept at the moment that Vladimir Putin is possibly thinking illogically about this and doesn’t see the disaster ahead.’

Western fears about an invasion have become more pronounced in the past week, with US President Joe Biden stating on Friday he is ‘convinced’ Mr Putin is preparing to order troops into Ukraine within days.

Mr Johnson appeared to back that conclusion, telling the BBC that is what the ‘evidence points to’.

With Ukraine surrounded on three sides by about 150,000 Russian soldiers, warplanes and equipment, the PM predicted a ‘bloody and protracted conflict’ and called on his Russian counterpart to ‘engage in serious diplomatic conversation’ to prevent a ‘sheer cost in human life’.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, meanwhile, used a separate interview to state that President Vladimir Putin ‘will not stop at Ukraine’ as she argued he is looking to piece the Soviet Union back together.

While Britain’s Europe minister, James Cleverly, warned a Russian invasion of Ukraine was now ‘very, very highly likely and very, very imminent’.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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