What happens if the UK is targeted by nuclear weapons? How Britain would respond to a Russia attack

Prof Chalmers said he did not think the UK would send over large equipment as Russia's superior force would destroy it quickly and Ukrainian forces would need training on how to use and maintain it. It has sent military equipment, weapons as  well as ammunition as well as anti-tank drones to Ukraine, however, Germany’s has refused to send “lethal weapons” to Ukraine. Following a meeting between US President Joe Biden and Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday, Mr Biden said the Nord Stream 2 Russia-to-Germany gas pipeline would be blocked if Russia further invades Ukraine.

He can be expected to put pro-Moscow politicians in charge in Kyiv while eliminating opponents and fixing elections (as in Russia). US officials believe the Kremlin has drafted a list of public figures earmarked for arrest or assassination. Analysts say Russia could opt for a more limited, less risky offensive to grab extra territory in eastern Ukraine and the Donbas, while asserting the independence of pro-Moscow breakaway republics there, as in Georgia in 2008. It may also try to seize the major ports of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov and Odessa on the Black Sea, and create a “land bridge” to Crimea.

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The decision of India’s Tata Steel this month to shut its two blast furnaces at Port Talbot, for example, means that Britain may soon be unable to make steel from scratch. Without steel, there are no tanks, no warships and no artillery shells. The decline in manufacturing means there are far fewer factories that can be converted to make arms, as happened in the Second World War, when car makers churned out Spitfire parts.

• Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace said these troops would be used “first and foremost” to deal with any humanitarian crisis.
• Over the Christmas period, Russia launched hundreds of missile and drone strikes across cities in Ukraine including Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipro and Lviv.
• Laszlo Toroczkai, leader of the Our Homeland party, also claimed the Zakarpattia region, where 150,000 ethnic Hungarians live, and said it should become part of Hungary if Russia annexes Ukraine after the war.
• A nuclear strike on any UK city would kill everyone within a 1.2-mile radius instantly.
• It comes as the UK has said that tougher sanctions against Russia in the event of an invasion of Ukraine will mean “a much broader range of individuals and businesses can be sanctioned due to their significance to the Kremlin”.

Kyiv’s politicians used to be notoriously fractious – not least because of divisions between the pro and anti-Russian camps. Once Putin rolled his tanks in, pro-Russian sentiment largely vanished. Should he need to, President Putin could extend mobilisation and drag out the war. Russia is a nuclear power and he has indicated he would be prepared, if necessary, to use nuclear weapons to protect Russia and cling on to occupied Ukrainian land. "We will certainly make use of all weapon systems available to us. This is not a bluff," he warned. Russia has captured the town of Soledar this year and has hopes of seizing the eastern city of Bakhmut on the road to key cities to the west, and of recapturing territory it lost last autumn.

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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has not gone to plan, with Ukraine remaining vigilant two months after the attacks began. Some autocratic leaders are looking to see how robustly the West resists attempts to undermine the territorial integrity of a sovereign nation. Some migrants might stay in neighbouring Poland and eastern European countries, but some might head further west and eventually end up in the UK. But both of these demands would break key Nato principles, namely that the alliance should be open to any European country that wants to join and that all Nato members should be sovereign nations. Russia wants Nato to make a legally binding promise that Ukraine will never become a member. It also wants Nato to withdraw its forces from most Eastern European countries.

• In his first major speech on defence, Grant Shapps said the country was moving from a "post war to a pre-war world".
• Speaking to the BBC, Mr Wallace said Ukraine would instead be supported to "fight every street with every piece of equipment we can get to them".
• Russia has gathered up to 190,000 troops along the Ukrainian border and is positioned to launch an attack that could threaten the capital, Kyiv, and sweep across much of the country.
• The war shows no signs of stopping and Vladimir Putin continues to make threats against Western involvement.
• "Has Putin decided to initiate a conflict? The jury is still out," he said.

Fighting could spread into Belarus where Russian forces are already stationed. Nato powers are already promising to build up their own forces in the alliance's eastern flank. Russia might use the crisis to launch cyber and other hybrid attacks on Nato countries. It could even send troops to the three Baltic countries - Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. According to  https://euronewstop.co.uk/what-is-a-molotov-cocktail-ukraine.html , Russian missiles on Kyiv and Kharkiv killed at least 18 people and injured over one hundred.

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He was not making a case for conscription or for an imminent call up of volunteers. Instead, he was urging Britain to prepare  for a mass mobilisation of tens of thousands of people, should war break out. A number of European countries also rehearse for civil emergencies - with exercises that involve ordinary citizens as well as the military. Germany's Defence Minister, Boris Pistorius, recently told a German newspaper "we have to take into account that Vladimir Putin might even attack a Nato country one day". While he said such an attack is unlikely now, "our experts expect a period of five to eight years in which this could be possible".

Some bars and restaurants in Kyiv were offering free drinks to anyone who had a UK passport. I offer my condolences and that of the UK to all Ukrainians for the lives lost due to these barbaric airstrikes. These took place far away from the front lines of Russia’s war, in civilian populated areas. The intensity, regularity and indiscriminate nature of Russia’s attacks may violate international humanitarian law, is extremely concerning and must stop.

• I think at this stage there is no threat of a Russia/Ukrainian conflict spreading further into Europe.
• Labour's Keir Starmer and many Conservative backbenchers have called for further military options to be explored.
• Russia has captured the town of Soledar this year and has hopes of seizing the eastern city of Bakhmut on the road to key cities to the west, and of recapturing territory it lost last autumn.
• The US and UK have not ruled out arming resistance fighters, as during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

One is to take back Kupiansk, the gateway to Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv. Another is to capture the salient town of Avdiivka, not far from the occupied regional capital of Donetsk. In the process it has lost spectacular numbers of troops, tanks and equipment.

The dependence of many European countries on Russian gas may also contribute to upward pressure on commodity prices as they seek alternative supplies from elsewhere. International affairs editor Dominic Waghorn and our team of specialist correspondents answered your questions on the Ukraine crisis in a live digital Q&A. Gen Sanders' speech was intended to be a wake-up call for the nation. But without political support, the mindset of a country that does not feel like it is about to go to war is unlikely to change.