Ukraine: Nato fear Europe’s post-war peace is now ‘shattered’ as UK firms urged to back Russia trade boycott by Tom Tugendhat

Tom Tugendhat MP, chairman of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee, also warns that the cost of living crisis will get worse if the UK remains “over reliant on kleptocratic regimes like the Kremlin”.

Ukraine: World must act now or risk paying an even higher price for Putin’s wars – Tom Tugendhat

Mr Tugendhat sets out the starkness of the threat posed by President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in an exclusive column in The Yorkshire Post.

Ukraine: Time for Britain to end ‘corrosive addiction to Russian money’, writes top former NATO diplomat David Hobbs

“Putin’s invasion is a stark reminder that the British values can never be taken for granted. Ukraine may not be our neighbour but we are connected. When freedom fails anywhere, we all suffer. Putin’s war will be felt, even here at home,” he writes.

Putin and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is Europe’s darkest hour since Second World War – Andrew Vine

The MP and former soldier’s comments were also echoed by the Archbishop of York who said that the West had taken “peace for granted” as bloody battles were waged across Ukraine, the capital Kyiv came under air attack and Europe braced itself for a refugee and humanitarian crisis.

Haunting echoes of Nazi Germany as Putin’s Russia invades Ukraine; now Britain must cut off ‘immoral flood of corrupt money’ flowing through London – Bishop of Leeds

Last night, Nato leaders – including Boris Johnson – agreed to send more defensive deployments to Eastern Europe as the death toll increased. “Russia has shattered peace in Europe,” said Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in his most ominous warning to date.

Meanwhile Mr Johnson confirmed that the UK will now introduce its own sanctions against President Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after a personal plea by Ukraine’s besieged president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The PM also used the emergency Nato summit to urge allies to freeze Russia out of the Swift international payment system, amid EU opposition, as part of a global push to isolate the finances of President Putin and Russia’s oligarchs.

As the diplomatic offensive intensified, Uefa moved football’s showcase Champions League final from St Petersburg, Formula 1 called off this year’s Grand Prix in Sochi and Russia was expelled from the Eurovision Song Contest in a growing sporting and cultural boycott.

Now Mr Tugendhat wants UK businesses to underpin this global action after warning that the cost of bread and pasta will rise – Ukraine produces 10 per cent of the world’s wheat.

“Families across the United Kingdom who are already struggling with higher heating costs are seeing petrol costs rise too. What’s coming next is food,” he writes.

“While our armed forces may not be in Ukraine today, make no mistake in thinking Putin’s war isn’t also a war waged against us.

“He’s attacking us all. Businesses in Britain, small or large, need to look at their supply chains and ensure their resilience to disruption.

“We cannot become over reliant on kleptocratic regimes like the Kremlin, allowing autocrats abroad to determine the costs of goods at home.”

Mr Tugendhat concludes: “The world our grandparents fought for is under threat. It will be hard, and it will cost, but we will prevail. And the cost of doing nothing would be worse.”

[email protected]

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today. Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you’ll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app, receive exclusive members-only offers and access to all premium content and columns. Click here to subscribe.