WAR will erupt if a single Russian boot touches Nato soil, Britain warned Vladimir Putin today.
Cabinet Minister Sajid Javid said Moscow would be met with a full-blown conflict if it goes further than invading Ukraine and starts messing with Western nations.
Boris Johnson now believes Putin is “bent on a full-scale invasion of Ukraine” after Russian tanks rolled across the border last night.
He is unveiling a package of economic sanctions in the Commons this lunchtime to sting the Kremlin aggressors.
Health Secretary Mr Javid compared the tensions to the Cuban Missile Crisis when the world teetered on the brink of nuclear conflict during the Cold War.
Although Ukraine is not a Nato member, he warned that encroachment into an alliance country would trigger a military response.
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Mr Javid told GMB: “If a single Russian soldier’s foot enters Nato territory – it will be war with all of Nato.
“Britain has already deployed soldiers to Nato’s eastern flank in bordering countries such as Estonia.
After chairing a dawn meeting of Cobra this morning, Mr Johnson said Putin had “completely torn up international law” by ordering troops into two breakaway regions of Ukraine – Donetsk and Luhansk.
Announcing his intention to impose sanctions on Russia, he added: “This is I should stress just the first barrage of UK economic sanctions against Russia because we expect I’m afraid that there is more Russian irrational behaviour to come.”
“I’m afraid all the evidence is that President Putin is indeed bent on a full-scale invasion of the Ukraine, the overrunning, the subjugation of an independent, sovereign European country and I think, let’s be absolutely clear, that will be absolutely catastrophic.”
