Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said she would support British nationals who chose to fight alongside Ukrainian forces against the Russian invasion as the embattled nation called on foreign fighters to join the war effort.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has promised to arm foreign volunteers to travel to his country to join the battle against Vladimir Putin’s forces.
Asked on the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme if she would support UK citizens who chose to answer the call, Ms Truss said: ‘I do. I do support that and of course that is something that people can make their own decisions about.
‘They are fighting, the people of Ukraine are fighting for freedom and democracy, not just for Ukraine but for the whole of Europe because that is what President Putin is challenging.
‘And absolutely, if people want to support that struggle, I would support them in doing that.’
Her comments come after Ukraine’s defence ministry today appealed for foreigners to come forward to join its armed forces and fight back against Putin’s army, with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine urging people to contact his department.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss today said she would support British nationals who chose to fight alongside Ukrainian forces against the Russian invasion
President Volodymyr Zelensky has promised to arm foreign volunteers to travel to his country to join the battle against Vladimir Putin’s forces
A picture from the Ukrainian city of Sumy shows a Russian tank burning after being hit by an NLAW anti-tank missile
When asked by the BBC’s Sophie Raworth to clarify whether she would ‘support people from Britain going over to Ukraine to help in the fight’, Ms Truss added: ‘Absolutely, if that’s what they want to do. And we are doing all we can to support with defences weapons.
‘Last night we saw the Germans are contributing defensive weapons now for the first time.
‘The UK led. We were the first European country to supply defensive weapons into Ukraine but we are now seeing our allies doing that.
‘The Defence Secretary held a donor conference on Friday, we had 25 countries turning up and we are seeing a huge united effort across the G7, across our allies, to challenge Vladimir Putin because this is Putin’s war.
‘This is prefabricated, pre-ordained aggression to try and subvert a sovereign democracy and we simply cannot allow him to succeed.’
Ms Truss also said the Government is ‘urgently’ looking at what more it can do to enable refugees from the fighting in Ukraine to come to Britain.
The Government has faced intense criticism over its failure so far to relax the visa requirements for Ukrainian nationals.
The Foreign Secretary said: ‘It is a desperate situation.
‘Of course, Britain has always welcomed refugees fleeing from war and we are urgently looking at what more we can do to facilitate that.’
Ms Truss said the UK and other Western allies would continue to impose fresh sanctions on Moscow.
‘We need to stop Putin’s ambitions in Ukraine’, she said.
‘There are dire consequences if we don’t for freedom and democracy across Europe.
‘We will continue to tighten the ratchet on Vladimir Putin, to tighten the ratchet on the economy.’
Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK Vadym Prystaiko told the same programme he believes his country will hold out out for ‘as long as needed’.
He said: ‘We’re holding. It’s been just four days. I believe that we’ll hold as long as needed.’
He said ‘we have friends, we have support’, adding that he believes Russia has ‘miscalculated’.
Mr Prystaiko added: ‘They came with 150,000 troops. It’s totally not enough.’
He said Russia believed Ukraine would be an ‘easy target’, which he said was not the case.
‘The whole nation is against them,’ he said.
Smoke rises above Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, this morning after Russian shelling
Elsewhere, the UK and other western nations unveiled new measures overnight to hit Russia’s financial system.
Britain, the US, Canada and the European Union have agreed to exclude some Russian banks from the Swift global payments system – one of the foundations of the global banking system.
The nations also agreed to impose ‘restrictive measures’ to prevent the Russian Central Bank from deploying its international reserves ‘in ways that undermine the impact of our sanctions’.
Russian forces have now entered Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv after failing in their efforts to seize control of the capital city of Kyiv.
Footage shared on social media on Sunday morning showed Russian army trucks rolling through the city of 1.4million people, which sits in Eastern Ukraine close to the border with Russia.
Soldiers were also seen marching through Kharkiv on foot, with a dramatic clip showing Russians slowly advancing along a road before running and firing their guns as Ukrainians opened fire on them.
Another clip shared online showed an army vehicle said to belong to the Russians ablaze, with locals saying it had been torched by Ukrainians seeking to defend their city.
A Russian military vehicle is seen ablaze in Kharkiv on Sunday morning after troops entered the eastern Ukrainian city
Russian forces were filmed advancing through Kharkiv on Sunday morning – moments before gunfire rang out, sending some soldiers running while others returned fire
Ms Truss told Trevor Phillips on Sky News this morning that Europe must be ‘prepared for a very long haul’ because she does not expect the conflict to end quickly.
Boris Johnson has been urging Western nations to provide more support to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Speaking following a phone call with Mr Zelensky yesterday, Mr Johnson said the West had to do everything possible to change the ‘very heavy odds’ against Ukraine in its struggle against Moscow’s forces.
He confirmed Britain would be sending further arms to the Ukrainians and he said that new financial measures were essential to put pressure on the Kremlin.
Meanwhile, Ireland today announced that it is closing its airspace to all Russian aircraft.
Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney tweeted: ‘Shocking Russian attacks on Ukraine overnight. Ireland will move to shut off Irish airspace to all Russian aircraft.
‘We encourage other EU partners to do the same. We also support new wide-ranging sanctions to be agreed today at EU FAC & new assistance package for Ukraine.’
