UK politics live: minister says Russian invasion of Ukraine likely to become more violent, with ‘horrific’ casualties possible

Labour is calling for a wholesale ban on Russia taking part in international sporting and cultural events. Lucy Powell, the shadow culture secretary, said:

The international response to Putin’s aggression must include exclusion from sporting and cultural events. From participation in the forthcoming World Cup to the touring Russian Ballet Company, the international response should be swift and categoric.

Putin has turned Russia into a pariah state, and sporting and cultural governing bodies should take strong action to recognise this fact, led by governments.

Individual clubs or nations shouldn’t have to decide themselves to boycott events. The government must act to strengthen consequences further and hit Russia and Putin where it hurts. Government ministers should hit the phones and agree a clear international boycott of sports and cultural participation. Russia needs to feel the consequences of its illegal war on Ukraine.

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is trying to broker a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine, PA Media reports. PA says:

The Russian-Israeli billionaire has come under pressure to speak out following the invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin’s forces.

There have been calls in parliament for him to face sanctions as a major oligarch “with links to the Russian state”.

A spokesman for the Chelsea owner said: “I can confirm that Roman Abramovich was contacted by the Ukrainian side for support in achieving a peaceful resolution, and that he has been trying to help ever since.

“Considering what is at stake, we would ask for your understanding as to why we have not commented on neither the situation as such nor his involvement.”

Abramovich’s involvement followed a request from Ukrainian film producer Alexander Rodnyansky.

There were no further details about his role, although it was acknowledged his influence was “limited”.

© Provided by The Guardian
Roman Abramovich. Photograph: Adam Davy/PA

Good morning. Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, was batting for the government on TV and radio this morning and he had the awkward job of tidying up policy difficulties left by his colleagues over the weekend.

First, UK immigration policy for Ukrainians fleeing the war and seeking refuge in this country. Downing Street announced a new approach last night, but when the Home Office published the small print a bit later, it turned out to be very minimal. Labour called the announcement “shameful”. This morning Wallace implied that this was just a first step, and that more would be done. He told Sky News:

The first step is to make sure that Ukrainians who have family here – either settled or dual nationals – that they can come and join them.

But the second step we will look at [is] about what we do with the refugee flows across the board.

In the light of the reaction to last night’s announcement, and developments in the EU, the government may well end up doing more. But that is not what the Home Office was telling journalists to expect last night.

Second, government policy on Britons wanting to travel to Ukraine to join the fight against the Russians. Yesterday Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, was criticised for saying she would support people wanting to do this. This morning Wallace did not exactly disown her, but he claimed that she was not advising people without military training to volunteer (Truss did not make that distinction in her interviews) and he said her main point was that the war was a “just cause”. He also said there were better ways to help Ukraine. He said:

If you’re keen to help and you’re a United Kingdom citizen, come and join our armed forces …

What I would say is unless you are properly trained, unless you are a, you know, experienced member of [the] armed forces, I think there are better ways for you to contribute to the security of Ukraine.

I will post more from Wallace’s interviews shortly.

Mostly today I will be focusing on UK reaction to the war in Ukraine, but I will also be covering some non-Ukraine politics too. Here is the agenda for the day.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

2.30pm: Priti Patel, the home secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

After 3.30pm: MPs debate the Lords amendments to the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill.

4pm: Neil O’Brien, the levelling up minister, and Andy Haldane, the former Bank of England economist who is head of the levelling up taskforce, give evidence to the Commons levelling up committee about the levelling up white paper.

For full coverage of the war in Ukraine, and a global perspective, do read our separate live blog. It’s here.

Related: Russia-Ukraine war latest news: negotiators to meet for talks; rouble crashes as markets open – live updates

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

Alternatively, you can email me at [email protected].

And here are some more line from Ben Wallace’s interviews this morning.

• Wallace, the defence secretary, said Russian invasion of Ukraine was likely to become more violent, with “horrific” casualty levels possible. He said:

They are behind schedule, they are taking significant casualties and they are feeling public rejection in parts of the Russian system itself; we’ve seen many protests.

But the Russian handbook is to then get more violent and commit more forces because fundamentally in the Russian, sort of, doctrine the lives of their own soldiers matter much less than in other armed forces.

So we have to brace ourselves for what may come next, which could be ruthless, indiscriminate bombing of cities and propelling forward of soldiers and high casualty levels, and that’s going to be horrific.

We don’t see or recognise in the sort of phrase or the status he described as anything that is a change to what they have currently as their nuclear posture. This is predominantly about Putin putting it on the table just to remind people, remind the world, that he has a deterrent …

At the moment this is a battle of rhetoric that President Putin is deploying, and we just have to make sure we manage it properly.

Wallace also said that, after Putin’s announcement, his 12-year-old son had asked if it meant there would be nuclear war. Asked how he replied, Wallace told LBC:

Well, Dad says, no, we’re not going to have a nuclear war. What I’ve said to him is, look, President Putin is dealing at the moment in a rhetoric. He wants to distract from what’s gone wrong in Ukraine and he wants us all to be reminded that he has a nuclear deterrent.

© Provided by The Guardian
Ben Wallace leaving the broadcasting studios at Millbank in Westminster this morning afteer doing a round of interviews. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

Tom Tugendhat, the Conservative chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, told the Today programme this morning that he thought the government would end up following the EU policy and allowing Ukrainians fleeing the war to stay for up to three years. Asked if he thought the announcement from the PM last night went far enough, he said it didn’t. He told the programme:

I’ve been speaking to ministers this morning and I can tell you there are many who are hopeful that this will be something that’s reviewed in the coming days.

Asked about the EU’s announcement that member countries would grant asylum to Ukrainian refugees for up to three years, he replied:

I suspect that’s likely to be where we end up to be honest. I think there’s a definite opportunity to be generous.

© Provided by The Guardian
Tom Tugendhat. Photograph: PRU/AFP/Getty Images

Tom Tugendhat, a former soldier and the Conservative chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, also told the Today programme this morning that President Putin’s decision to put his nuclear forces on high alert did not fundamentally alter the threat. He explained:

The Russian military doctrine doesn’t work in the same way as the Nato military doctrine. They do assume that they may use battlefield nuclear weapons and they see them as just a, if you’ll excuse the expression, a bigger bang. They don’t treat fallout in the same way we do.

Tugendhat said the situation was “concerning”. But h went on:

That said, Russia has frequently threatened nuclear deployments in the past. This is not unusual but at the same time it is concerning and it is not impossible a Russian military order to use battlefield nuclear weapons could be given.

According to ConservativeHome, which conducts regular surveys of readers who are Tory members, which are seen as reliable guides to party opinion, Conservative members who think the partygate scandal is not important to voters now outnumber those who do think it is important by almost two to one. In December a majority of members thought it was important.

Paul Goodman, the ConservativeHome editor, says there is now no prospect of Boris Johnson facing a leadership challenge while the Ukraine crisis continues.