This week the Prime Minister will call on the international
community to make a renewed and concerted effort to ensure Putin
fails in Ukraine.
In the days since Russia invaded Ukraine, we have seen an
unprecedented wave of international condemnation from across the
globe. On Wednesday evening 141 nations voted to denounce
Russia’s actions in only the 11th Emergency Special
Session of the UN General Assembly ever held.
The same day, 38 countries, coordinated by the UK, led the
largest ever referral to the International Criminal Court to
ensure Putin will be held to account for his war crimes.
At the same time, more and more countries have stepped up to
provide much-needed humanitarian and military support to the
people of Ukraine. Nations across the globe have imposed the
largest ever package of sanctions against a major economy.
On Monday the Prime Minister will welcome Canadian Prime Minister
Trudeau and Dutch Prime Minister Rutte to Downing Street for
discussions on how to turn these commitments into a concerted
campaign of solidarity with Ukraine. On Friday he spoke to
President Macron and the leaders of Turkey and Serbia.
On Tuesday, he will host leaders of the ‘V4’ group of Central
European nations – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and
Slovakia. These are countries already experiencing first-hand the
humanitarian crisis rapidly engulfing the European continent.
The Prime Minister will tell leaders that, to ensure Putin fails
in his ambitions, the international community must come together
under a six-point plan of action to:
- Mobilise an international humanitarian coalition for Ukraine
- Support Ukraine in its efforts to provide for its own
self-defence
- Maximise the economic pressure on Putin’s regime
- Prevent the creeping normalisation of what Russia is doing in
Ukraine
- Pursue diplomatic paths to de-escalation but only on the
basis of full participation by the legitimate government of
Ukraine
- Begin a rapid campaign to strengthen security and resilience
across the Euro-Atlantic area
Setting out his six-point plan today, the Prime Minister
will say:
“Putin must fail and must be seen to fail in this act of
aggression. It is not enough to express our support for the
rules-based international order – we must defend it against a
sustained attempt to rewrite the rules by military
force.
“The world is watching. It is not future historians but
the people of Ukraine who will be our judge.”
Last week the UK increased its humanitarian support to Ukraine
and the region to £220 million announced this year, including £20
million of match funding to the DEC appeal. The UK continues to
supply defensive and lethal weaponry to Ukraine and the Prime
Minister has spoken to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy daily to
understand the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ needs.
The UK has already implemented the largest and most severe
package of economic sanctions ever imposed on a major
economy. We have brought in sanctions on President Putin,
Sergey Lavrov, five Russian banks and more than 300 individuals
and entities at the heart of Putin’s regime, and Belarus. We are
preventing the Russian state from raising debt here and isolating
all Russian companies from access to UK capital markets.
The government will continue to ratchet up pressure and use
sanctions to degrade the Russian economy on a scale that the
Kremlin, or any major economy, has ever seen before. On Friday
the government announced new provisions to streamline the current
legislation so we can respond even more swiftly and effectively
to the current crisis.
The Prime Minister will host both Prime Minister Rutte and Prime
Minister Trudeau in Downing Street for separate bilateral
meetings and a joint trilateral meeting.
Tuesday’s meeting of the V4 will take place in London and include
both a plenary session of all five leaders and separate bilateral
meetings.
Notes to Editors
- The Prime Ministers six-point plan of action will be
published in an essay in the New York Times on Sunday 6th
March
