Ukraine war: West made terrible mistake after Crimea - PM

Boris Johnson arrives at a meeting of northern European leaders in London

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the West made a "terrible mistake" and let President Vladimir Putin "get away" with annexing Crimea in 2014.

Writing in the Telegraph, Mr Johnson said ending the West's dependence on Russian oil and gas was vital to end Kremlin "bullying".

It comes as the UK banned exports of luxury goods to Russia among other sanctions.

About 100 more people are also expected to be sanctioned under a new law.

The legislation allows the UK to target individuals alongside the US and the European Union, which has signed off its fourth package of sanctions against Russia.

In addition, Mr Johnson said the only way to halt President Putin's "continuous blackmail" was by ending western reliance on Russian fossil fuels - a process that would be "painful".

The prime minister is preparing to head to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf for talks about increasing production of oil and gas to compensate for reduced Russian supplies.

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He also said his promised Energy Security Strategy for the UK would step up wind energy, exploit solar power and make a "series of big new bets" on nuclear energy. Further drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea was one suggestion he made.

The UK is to phase out Russian oil imports by the end of 2022.

A decision by the government to talk to Saudi Arabia about measures to bring down the cost of energy has been criticised by many MPs after the country executed 81 people at the weekend.

Downing Street says the UK "will continue to raise human rights abuses" with Saudi Arabia.

The prime minister chaired cabinet meeting this morning before hosting a summit of northern European leaders in London.

The leaders of those countries, which form a security alliance called the Joint Expeditionary Force, will consider what steps they can take to help Ukraine and shore up their own resilience against Russia.

In a video call to those leaders, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Nato alliance had been "hypnotised by Russian aggression" and repeated his plea for western military intervention.

While he welcomed the latest western sanctions, Mr Zelensky said they "are not enough" to end the war and called for a full trade embargo on Russia.

Boris Johnson is talking about taking back control again, but this time of the country's energy supply and, along the way, increasing efforts to make the UK a "net zero" carbon emitter.

"Green electricity isn't just better for the environment, it's better for your bank balance," says the prime minister in his article in the Daily Telegraph. "There's nothing [Putin] can do to stop the North Sea wind."

Mr Johnson has been talking about making the UK "the Saudi Arabia of wind" for some time now so this is not a new policy, but it would represent a significant acceleration of the move towards low carbon power.

Yes, he is backing new drilling in the North Sea, but there's also the promise of "big new bets" on nuclear power and - a surprise for many - no mention of the return of fracking, a controversial method of shale gas mining.

In his article in the Telegraph, Mr Johnson said: "When Putin invaded Ukraine the first time round, in 2014, the West made a terrible mistake. The Russian leader had committed an act of violent aggression and taken a huge chunk out of a sovereign country - and we let him get away with it."

Mr Putin ordered the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 after months of protests against its pro-Russian president culminated in his ousting. He then backed an eastern rebellion by pro-Russian separatists, who have fought Ukrainian forces in an eight-year war that has claimed 14,000 lives.

Despite years of western sanctions, Russia remains firmly in control of Crimea, which it absorbed following a referendum vote discredited by much of the international community.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine last month, a growing number of Russians have been sanctioned by the UK. Most recently, 386 Russian MPs who voted to recognise two rebel-held areas of eastern Ukraine as independent have been hit by asset freezes and UK travel bans.

Russia has maintained its grip on Crimea despite years of western sanctions

In its latest sanctions, the EU has agreed bans on any transactions with certain Russian state-owned enterprises and the export of luxury goods to "directly hit Russian elites".

Sources have told the BBC that the EU's measures will target Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich, who has already been sanctioned by the UK.

Co-ordinated with western allies, the sanctions "will further contribute to ramping up economic pressure on the Kremlin and cripple its ability to finance its invasion of Ukraine", the European Commission said.

BBC Brussels correspondent Jessica Parker says the EU has gone farther and faster than many expected, although there is a growing rift between cautious countries and those like Poland and the Baltic states, who want even stronger measures.

On Tuesday, the UK announced new sanctions that mirrored the EU's in several areas, including the export ban on luxury goods such as high-end fashion and works of art.

As part of these measures, Russian vodka and hundreds of other goods worth £900m were hit with an additional 35% import tariff.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the new tariffs "will further isolate the Russian economy from global trade".

On top of this, the UK's fast-tracked Economic Crime Bill, which passed through Parliament the early hours of Tuesday, will now allow the UK to automatically sanction those who have had their assets already frozen by the EU, US or Canada.

This will potentially open the door to hundreds more individual sanctions.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is likely to announce new measures on Tuesday on more than 100 individuals with links to President Putin's regime, the BBC understands.

Speaking to BBC's Hardtalk, senior Conservative and chair of the Defence Select Committee Tobias Ellwood said sanctions on Russia would lead members of the Russian elite and generals to "recognise there is no future for Russia" and Mr Putin would "eventually go".

However, Mr Ellwood warned that "until then, he will cause absolute carnage in Ukraine and beyond unless we stand up to him".

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