Image source, ParliamentLive.TV

A bit earlier Ian Blackford MP, the Scottish National Party leader at Westminster, accused the UK government of not doing enough to tackle corrupt Russian money flowing into the country.

He claimed that under Conservative governments "a sewer of dirty Russian money has been allowed to run through London for years".

He accused the Tories of raising £2.3m from "Russian oligarchs" and asked the PM if the money would be returned.

Boris Johnson replied by saying that it was important for the House to understand the Conservatives "do not raise money from Russian oligarchs".

"We raise money from people who are registered to vote on the UK register of interest," he said.

Image source, ParliamentLive.TV

The Green Party MP Caroline Lucas is next up in the UK House of Commons - and criticises the prime minister over a comment he made in 2017.

She says during a joint press conference, the Russian foreign minister claimed there was no evidence Russia had interfered in UK elections, and Johnson corrected him and said there was no evidence of successful interference.

Lucas asks: "What evidence has he seen of unsuccessful interference?"

Johnson says he will repeat what he said before - that he has seen absolutely no evidence of successful Russian interference in any electoral event.

(You can read more on the Russia report into interference here. The government previously said Russia almost certainly sought to interfere in the 2019 election.)

As we've been reporting, at the start of Prime Minister's Questions, UK PM Boris Johnson told MPs his government will increase military support to Ukrainian forces.

The package will include "defensive weapons" and "non-lethal" aid. You can watch his announcement below.

Keir Starmer says the prime minister must work across the House of Commons "to ensure the end of the era of oligarch impunity".

The UK can no longer be a home for their loot, he adds.

"No government could be doing more to root out corrupt money," Johnson replies.

He says he is proud of what his government has already done.

He adds he is grateful for the "broad support" he has had from Starmer.

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

Boris Johnson suggestion just now that regulator Ofcom is looking into banning RT, the Kremlin-backed television channel is new information.

It could potentially defuse one aspect of Labour's attack - that the government is being slow to act on sanctions

Image source, ParliamentLive.TV

Starmer says Russia has invaded and it is "time to act" and again urges the PM to introduce tougher measures "in the coming days".

Boris Johnson replies that the government will be bringing in measures that will stop all Russian banks and individuals "raising money on London's markets".

He adds that his government will "peel back the facade of beneficial ownership of property in the UK and companies" which he says has "gone on for far too long".

Starmer says the UK must do more to fight Putin's campaign of fake news.

He calls for broadcaster RT to no longer be allowed to air in the UK.

"Will the PM now ask Ofcom to review its licence?" asks Starmer.

Johnson says the culture secretary has already asked Ofcom to review that matter.

"We live in a democracy and we live in a country that believes in free speech. I think it important that we should leave it up to Ofcom rather than to politicians to decide what media organisations to ban. That's what Russia does."

Labour's task during a time of crisis is trickypublished at 12:12 Greenwich Mean Time 23 February 2022

12:12 GMT 23 February 2022

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

Opposition leader Keir Starmer has a difficult line to tread at PMQs - showing solidarity with the government against Russia but also distancing himself from Boris Johnson on the extent of sanctions and trying to create tensions between the PM and his own backbenchers.

Image source, ParliamentLive.TV

Keir Starmer says there is concern among MPs that the PM's strategy could "send the wrong message".

He says if the PM brings forward his full package of sanctions - including banning it from using SWIFT, an international payments system - he will have the full support of the House of Commons.

Boris Johnson says the UK is ready to escalate sanctions adding the current measures allow the UK to target Russian individuals.

He says his government has introduced "far-reaching legislation".

Image source, ParliamentLive.TV

At the UK's PMQs Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says Vladimir Putin is not a peacekeeper and "a sovereign nation has been invaded".

Starmer says Boris Johnson promised that in the event of an invasion, he would unleash a full package of sanctions.

"If not now then when?" says Starmer.

Johnson says the UK has been offering military support to Ukraine.

And he says he wants to highlight the extent of the package of sanctions set out already - saying 275 individuals have been sanctioned already, and "there is more to come".

Image source, ParliamentLive.TV

Prime Minister Boris Johnson begins by telling MPs that "in the light of increasing threatening behaviour from Russia" the UK will shortly be providing a further package of military support to Ukraine.

He says this will include aid in the form of defensive weapons and non-lethal aid.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is up next in the House of Commons to face questions from MPs - with Ukraine likely to be top of the agenda.

We're expecting to hear more about the sanctions the UK has announced on Russia (five banks and three Russian billionaires have had their assets frozen - more on that here).

But there's been some criticism of the UK's approach - with some MPs calling for tougher sanctions and for the government to go further. We'll probably hear some of that criticism aired shortly, so stick with us for the latest updates.

Myroslava Petsa
BBC News Ukrainian, Kyiv

Ukraine's national security and defence council has been working 24/7 and its secretary just did a briefing and told the journalists that Ukraine is set to impose a state of emergency.

It has to be OK-ed by the Parliament within the next 48 hours but the Parliament is expected to rule on this shortly at arund 17:00 local time (15:00 GMT).

The state of emergency will work through the whole of Ukraine apart from the Donetsk and Luhansk.

What will the state of emergency mean? Well the first preparation under way is what President Zelensky said yesterday in his address to the nation - that Ukraine is to call up its reservists.

I know that a lot of men and women were called up today and went to military offices today.

The state of emergency is not martial law, which as well may be imposed in Ukraine (as the secretary of the national security and defence council said today) in case a further invasion happens.

The state of emergency will not be felt by its citizens. It will give the Ukrainian authorities the right to shield its population and statehood from a possible danger.

What is an Oligarch?published at 11:55 Greenwich Mean Time 23 February 2022

11:55 GMT 23 February 2022

During yesterday's debate in the UK parliament, many MPs challenged Boris Johnson to do more to tackle wealth held by Russian oligarchs in the UK.

But what is an oligarch?

Coming from the word "oligarchy" - a society in which power rests with a small elite - it is commonly used to refer to a group of extremely wealthy Russians who rose to prominence after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Many gained their wealth in dubious circumstances, taking advantage of the relative chaos that followed the collapse of the communist regime and the fire sale of formerly state-owned assets. They became increasingly influential in the affairs of the new Russian state in the 1990s during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin.

When Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000 many oligarchs aligned with his new government in exchange for maintaining their status.

Some of the original players who refused to fall into line, such as banker Boris Berezovsky, were forced to flee the country or were imprisoned like Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Putin told the Financial Times in 2019 "we do not have oligarchs any more"., external

Image source, Getty Images

Perhaps the best known oligarch in the UK is Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea Football Club. Worth an estimated $14.3bn (£10.2bn), he made his fortune selling previously Russian state-owned assets he had acquired following the fall of the Soviet Union.

Another is Alexander Lebedev, a former KGB officer and banker, whose son Evgeny is the proprietor of the London Evening Standard newspaper. Evgeny is a UK citizen and has been made a member of the House of Lords.

Paul Adams
BBC diplomatic correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Coupled with the call up of reservists yesterday, today’s declaration of a state of emergency, expected to be approved by parliament later today, clearly conveys the impression of a government bracing itself for an escalation in the conflict.

Officials say the declaration of emergency will all be about maintaining calm and allowing the economy to continue to function, but also say measures will include vehicle inspections, restrictions on transport and public order protection.

Ukraine has, of course, been at war for eight years, but these seem to be the moves of a government that recognises the scope of the conflict could rapidly escalate.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA

Image source, Reuters

And from around the world...

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA

It's been an eventful morning, with a flurry of announcements and decisions from the Ukrainian government.

Here's a sum-up:

• A state of emergency across the whole country is set to be declared, following a recommendation from Ukraine's security council
• This will last 30 days, but is subject to approval by the Ukrainian parliament - expected later today
• Ukraine has urged citizens living in Russia, estimated to be up to three million people, to leave immediately
• The military has also called up a first wave of reservists - aged 18 to 60 - to join the regular armed forces

Is the UK bringing a peashooter to a gunfight?published at 11:02 Greenwich Mean Time 23 February 2022

11:02 GMT 23 February 2022

Paul Adams
BBC diplomatic correspondent

Image source, PA Media

How strong are the sanctions announced so far on Russia? Are they really, as one expert has argued,, external the equivalent of taking “a peashooter to a gunfight”?

Taken in isolation, the package announced by Boris Johnson might look that way. But British officials point out the UK’s move is part of a much larger, highly co-ordinated set of measures involving all Ukraine’s western allies. And that this is just the start.

Taken together, the UK’s highly specific targeting of Russian oligarchs and banks, the USA’s sweeping moves against Russian financial institutions and sovereign debt, and a slew of measures announced by the EU (and expected to be approved, in record time, later today), represent a substantial first salvo in what is likely to be a rolling series of announcements.

The idea seems to be to make the measures personal (the oligarchs around Putin), politically symbolic (the Nordstream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany), specific (measures directly targeting the Ukrainian separatist areas of Donetsk and Luhansk) and genuinely painful.

Ukraine, which has been calling for the immediate imposition of sanctions, even before a full-scale Russian attack, has welcomed the moves.

Having pulled back the curtain on what might still be to come, the Western allies hope sanctions – current and future – will act as a deterrent. But they also realise this could still prove wishful thinking.

A state of emergency will be declared in Ukraine, the country's national security council has decided.

Following a meeting of the council, top security official Oleksiy Danilov said the state of emergency would be imposed all regions except Donetsk and Luhansk, where Ukrainian forces are already at war with Russian-backed separatists.

He said it would last 30 days initially.

However, the move must be approved by the Ukrainian parliament.

There's been a lot of news in the last few days and it's easy to lose track of where things stand on the Ukraine crisis. So here's a brief recap:

Rebel regions: Russian troops have been massed on Ukraine's borders for months but things escalated on Monday when Vladimir Putin recognised the Russian-backed, rebel-held areas of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent - and even challenged the historical right of Ukraine to exist.

Sanctions: Major Western powers and their allies responded with a fresh package of measures against Moscow - targeting Russian individuals and banks linked to Putin's regime, and suspending a major new gas pipeline between Russia and Germany. But many said they didn't go far enough. There's been particular criticism that the UK is not doing enough to tackle Russian money in the City of London. But the government says it's ready to hit Russia with harder measures.

Next move, Putin: Although he has ordered troops into the two separatist regions of Ukraine to "maintain peace", there is still no clear evidence that any new Russian forces have arrived. This morning Putin insisted he was still open to "direct and honest dialogue" - but experts say his actions in recent days could suggest the crisis will only continue to deepen.