Boris Johnson plays down fears of Russian nuclear strike on Ukraine
A peaceful resolution still appears a long way away, as Correspondent Peter Smith reports
Boris Johnson has dismissed fears Russian President Vladimir Putin could launch a tactical nuclear strike if his forces continue to be bogged down in Ukraine.
The prime minister said the overwhelming support in Russia for the invasion meant Mr Putin had the “political margin for manoeuvre” to back down and withdraw his forces if they fail to breakthrough.
Some analysts have warned a frustrated Russian leader could use his arsenal of low-yield, battlefield nuclear weapons if they suffered further reverses at the hands of the Ukrainians.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused NATO of “pouring oil on the fire” with its support for Ukraine, and warned that the threat of nuclear conflict “should not be under-estimated”.
Russia has also singled Britain out for criticism after armed forces minister James Heappey said it was legitimate for Ukraine to hit fuel depots in Russia with UK-supplied weapons.
In an interview with TalkTV, the prime minister said Britain does not want war “to escalate beyond Ukraine’s borders,” and rejected Moscow's allegations that the West is fighting a proxy conflict with Russia.
The PM said Ukrainians “are being attacked from within Russian territory” and “have a right to protect and defend themselves” by striking inside Russia.
But in an interview with Talk TV, Mr Johnson said “it’s very, very important that we don’t accept the way that the Russians are trying to frame what is happening in Ukraine.”
He said: “They are trying to frame this as a conflict between Russia and the West, or Russia and NATO. That’s not what is going on.”
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Earlier on Tuesday, Moscow warned they could retaliate by hitting government structures in Kyiv if Russian territory is hit with UK-supplied weapons.
Russia has warned it could strike “decision-making centres” in the capital and said such attacks wouldn’t be stopped by the possible presence of Western advisers.
The Russian Defence Ministry pointed at Mr Heappey, who told Times Radio on Tuesday morning that it was “not necessarily a problem” if Ukraine used weapons from Britain to hit sites on Russian soil.
The ministry said in a statement that “the Russian armed forces are ready to deal retaliatory strikes with long-range precision guided weapons on Kyiv centres that would make such decisions."
It noted that “the presence of citizens of one of Western countries in the Ukrainian decision-making centres won’t necessarily pose a problem for Russia in making a decision to launch retaliatory action."
How the situation looks after more than two months of fighting
Meanwhile, the United Nations is "ready to fully mobilise" humanitarian efforts in Mariupol, according to its secretary general António Guterres.
In frank discussions with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the UN proposed a coordinated effort between the Red Cross, Ukrainian and Russian forces to save lives in the besieged city.
Mykhailo Vershynin, the head of police patrol in Mariupol, told ITV News 500 people are injured in what is believed to be the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the city.
Pictures he sent from inside the Azovstal steel plant - where 1,000 civilians and Ukrainian fighters are holed up - show graphic injuries, while others try to recover in cramped conditions.
It comes after weeks of fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces in the Donbas region and in other eastern parts of Ukraine, with the city of Kreminna reportedly falling to Moscow.
Mr Guterres said: "Thousands of civilians are in dire need of life-saving humanitarian assistance, and many of evacuation. The United Nations is ready to fully mobilise its human and logistical resources to help save lives in Mariupol.
"And we urgently need humanitarian corridors that are truly safe and effective and that are respected by all to evacuate civilians and deliver much-needed assistance."
There have been repeated attempts to set up humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to flee Mariupol for safety, but these have frequently not been created with both sides accusing each other of breaking ceasefire agreements.
However, Mr Lavrov said it is too early to consider mediation talks between the two nations - adding the conflict should serve as a "dangerous wake-up call for the United Nations."
Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, has promised to “keep moving heaven and earth” to get Kyiv the weapons it needs to repel the new offensive even as Moscow warned such support risked widening the war.
Two months into the devastating conflict, Western arms have already helped Ukraine stall Russia’s invasion - but its leaders have said they need more support fast.
To that end, Germany announced it has cleared the way for delivery of 50 anti-aircraft guns to Ukraine.
This comes as officials in Poland and Bulgaria say Russia is suspending their countries' natural gas deliveries starting on Wednesday.
Is there a real danger of the situation escalating? Global Security Editor Rohit Kachroo reports what he has been told by officials
Part of the Ukrainian urgency for support is down to reports of Kreminna, a city in the Luhansk region in the east of the country, falling to Russian forces.
“The city of Kreminna has reportedly fallen and heavy fighting is reported south of Izium as Russian forces attempt to advance towards the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk from the north and east,” the British Ministry of Defence said in an update on the war on Tuesday morning.
It did not say how it knew the city, 355 miles south-east of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, had fallen. The Ukrainian government did not immediately comment.
The MoD's assessment came as Russian assaults on Ukrainian targets continued.
The governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, said that Russian forces had shelled civilians 17 times over the last 24 hours, with the cities of Popasna, Lysychansk and Girske suffering the most.
Elsewhere, a 14-year-old boy and a nine-year-old girl were among four people killed after Russian shelling in the Donetsk region, according to its governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.
Russian forces are said to be fighting to take full control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which comprise the Donbas in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, and establish a land corridor to Crimea which it seized in 2014.
It came as Russia’s top diplomat warned Ukraine against provoking World War Three and said the threat of a nuclear conflict “should not be underestimated.”
In an in-depth Russian TV interview, Mr Lavrov blamed Ukraine for stalled talks between the two countries, and accused the United States and the UK of pressuring Kyiv not to reach an agreement.
He also accused Ukrainian leaders of provoking Russia by asking NATO to become involved in the conflict.
By providing weapons, NATO forces are “pouring oil on the fire,” he said, according to a Russian transcript on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website.
His comments come as officials from more than 40 countries gathered in Germany for US-hosted defence talks focusing on how to arm Kyiv.
US Army General Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a core objective of the talks is to agree on how to best coordinate the delivery of military weaponry - such as armed drones, ammunition and howitzer artillery - to Ukraine.
Kicking off the meeting, which is being held at Ramstein Air Base, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed confidence that Ukraine could beat Russia in the war, saying that their resistance "has brought inspiration to the free world."
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