Vladimir Putin is in “a total panic” about a revolution in Moscow which is why he is trying “so brutally to snuff out the flame of freedom in Ukraine”, Boris Johnson has said.
Condemning the “vicious and a barbarian attack on innocent civilians”, the prime minister drew a direct comparison with the actions of the Nazis under Adolf Hitler in the 1940s.
He also warned the Russian president would not stop at Ukraine and a Kremlin victory would usher in the “beginning of a new age of intimidation across the whole of eastern Europe” and give “the green light for autocrats everywhere”.
Ukraine war – latest updates
The Conservative leader issued the caution during a typically forthright, bombastic speech to his party’s spring conference in Blackpool, watched on by the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko.
Key developments:
• Fighting has reached the city centre in besieged Mariupol, where an estimated 1,300 people remain trapped under rubble following an airstrike on a theatre
• Russia fires ‘hypersonic missile for first time’ at Ukraine as Mr Putin is accused of using peace talks as a “smokescreen”
• The Home Office says 8,600 visas have been granted under the family scheme for Ukrainians fleeing the war
• Three Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station wearing bright yellow and blue – the colours of the Ukrainian flag
• A total of 112 children have been killed during the war, according to Ukraine
The latest situation in Ukraine
Mr Johnson told Tory activists: “A tragedy continues to unfold in our European continent, a vicious and a barbarian attack on innocent civilians, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the 1940s.
“With every day that Ukraine’s heroic resistance continues, it is clear that Putin…
Source : skynews
