Putin 'doesn't give a s**t about sanctions' and 'the more the West pushes him, the stronger his response will be', Russian ambassador to Sweden says as US staff begin withdrawing from eastern Ukraine amid warning of 'imminent' invasion
Vladimir Putin 'doesn't give a s**t' about the risk of Western sanctions if his country were to invade Ukraine, Russia's ambassador to Sweden said as US staff began withdrawing from eastern Ukraine amid warnings of an 'imminent' invasion.
In an outspoken interview, Viktor Tatarintsev told the country's Aftonbladet newspaper that 'the more the West pushes Russia, the stronger the Russian response will be'. He claimed Russia had become more 'self-sufficient' amid the threat of sanctions and accused the West of not understanding his country.
'We are more self-sufficient and have been able to increase our exports. We have no Italian or Swiss cheeses, but we've learned to make just as good Russian cheeses using Italian and Swiss recipes', he said.
His comments came as dramatic photos today showed U.S. staff members of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) packing up and leaving the rebel-held city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
They were fleeing as Britain's Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis said a Russian invasion could be 'imminent'.
He told Sky's Trevor Phillips On Sunday: 'We have to be realistic about Russia having 100,000 troops now roughly on the border that an imminent incursion by Russia is entirely possible.'
He was echoing warnings by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who said last night that millions of refugees could flee Ukraine if an invasion takes place and warned Vladimir Putin could strike 'at any time'.
Speaking in an interview with the Sunday Times, Mr Wallace added that there is a 'whiff of Munich in the air' - an apparent reference to the 1938 agreement that allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland in the hope that it would prevent the outbreak of war.
Just a year later, the Second World War began when Hitler invaded Poland, with Britain's Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's efforts to preserve peace left in tatters
There are an estimated 130,000 Russian troops and heavy firepower amassed along Ukraine's border.
The potential invasion force prompted the US and the UK, along with other European nations, to warn their citizens to leave the country while they still can.
Vladimir Putin 'doesn't give a s**t' about the risk of Western sanctions if it were to invade Ukraine, Russia's ambassador to Sweden said as US staff began withdrawing from eastern Ukraine amid warnings of an 'imminent' invasion
His comments came as dramatic photos today showed U.S. staff members of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) packing up and leaving the rebel-held city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine
In an outspoken interview, Viktor Tatarintsev told the country's Aftonbladet newspaper that 'the more the West pushes Russia, the stronger the Russian response will be'. Pictured: Joint military exercises by Russian and Belarusian forces
There are an estimated 130,000 Russian troops and heavy firepower amassed along Ukraine's border. Above: Ukrainians attending an open military training session as the country prepares for a possible invasion
Veteran diplomat Tatarintsev said in his interview: 'Excuse my language, but we don't give a s**t about all their sanctions'.
'We have already had so many sanctions and in that sense they've had a positive effect on our economy and agriculture.
'New sanctions are nothing positive but not as bad as the West makes it sound', he added.
Sanctions being considered could target both Russian businesses and individuals in a range of significant sectors, such as the chemical, defence, extractives, ICT and financial services industries.
However, Tatarintsev accused the West of not understanding the Russian mentality.
'The more the West pushes Russia, the stronger the Russian response will be,' he said.
Tatarintsev insisted Moscow was trying to avoid a war. 'That is our political leadership's most sincere wish. The last thing people in Russia want is war,' he claimed.
On Saturday, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss tweeted that Russia would face 'massive consequences' if it invaded Ukraine, including 'severe sanctions'.
Today, Yvette Cooper, Labour's shadow home secretary, said a 'very strong and united international response' is needed for 'this Russian belligerence'.
She told BBC One's Sunday Morning programme with Sophie Raworth: 'It is immensely serious and nobody should be naive about what Russia is up to, and the scale of the troops amassing on the Ukraine border.'
Ms Cooper said there has to be 'extremely strong and swift and severe' sanctions.
Photos today showed staff at the OSCE withdrawing by car from the city of Donetsk, which has been held by Russian-backed rebels since 2014
The staff were pictured carrying suitcases and wearing rucksacks as they climbed into white SUVs emblazoned with the OSCE logo
Members of the OSCE were leaving after the US and the UK warned their citizens to get out of the country
Photos today showed staff at the OSCE withdrawing by car from the city of Donetsk, which has been held by Russian-backed rebels since 2014.
The staff were pictured carrying suitcases and wearing rucksacks as they climbed into white SUVs emblazoned with the OSCE logo.
They were leaving after the US and the UK warned their citizens to get out of the country.
On Friday, the Foreign Office updated its advice to tell UK nationals to 'leave now while commercial means are still available' amid mounting concerns they could get caught up in fighting - including a deadly 'aerial bombardment of Kiev'.
However, some defiant Britons have insisted that they will stay in the country, even as airlines start to stop flights and diplomats leave. Lecturer Charlie Gilkeson is one of those staying put.
The 68-year-old Yorkshireman told the Mail on Sunday that he feels it would be wiser to remain, even as he finds himself in a 'possible war'.
He is staying in a flat he is renovating with his wife, whom he met in Russia. His children have urged him to come to the UK. 'I think it is safer here,' he said.
OSCE staff were fleeing as Britain's Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis (pictured) said a Russian invasion could be 'imminent'Northern Ireland Secretary Mr Lewis told the BBC's Sunday Morning programme that the West must realise Russia could 'move very quick' despite diplomatic efforts to prevent an invasion of Ukraine.
But he also defended diplomatic action so far, saying it had probably already delayed a strike into Ukraine from Moscow forces.
Discussing Mr Wallace's comparison with appeasement in the late 1930s, Mr Lewis said: 'If you look back to that period of time there was a lot of diplomatic engagement, there was an optimism at the time actually that there may be a diplomatic way through.
'That eventually turned out not to be the case. It turned out that wasn't the intent or aim of Adolf Hitler at the time.
'What he's [Mr Wallace] drawing comparison with is we hope that the conversation that he's had that the Foreign Secretary and others... has a positive outcome and Russia does work through and find a diplomatic peaceful way out of this.
'But he's expressing that concern that we've got to also understand the reality that while they're having these diplomatic conversations Russia has continued to move troops, we've got about 130,000 troops on the borders, and therefore we've got to be cognisant of the reality they could move very quick.'
Speaking later on Sky's Trevor Phillips on Sunday programme, Mr Lewis said: 'We will bring in more sanctions, that is what one of the repercussions will be... we already have some sanctions against Russia already.
'We have already taken the power in last week or so with the statutory instrument in Parliament to allow the UK to put more sanctions in place.
'I spent most of last week in the United states... what is very clear is that the United States are absolutely unified in this approach to ensure that we do not see an incursion and that if Russia does take that kind of activity then there will be repercussions. '
Pictured: British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace attends a meeting with Russian Defence Minister in Moscow on Friday. The Cabinet minister, who this week flew to Moscow as part of the frantic spell of diplomacy, shared his concerns as US President Joe Biden warned his Russian counterpart an attack would cause 'widespread human suffering'
Pictured: A handout satellite image made available by Maxar Technologies shows tents and equipment at the northern end of the Oktyabrskoye airfield, Crimea, 10 February 2022Mr Lewis was speaking after Mr Wallace's warning that there could be 'millions' of refugees if Russia does choose to invade Ukraine.
He said that the potential for 'millions of displaced people - refugees - pouring from one European country to another hasn't been seen since the war and could potentially have a massive impact.'
His comments echoed previous warnings by Ukraine's defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, who said that a 'major war' could lead to the 'sudden appearance of between three and five million Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion'.
Mr Wallace said that Moscow could 'launch an offensive at any time', with an estimated 130,000 Russian troops and heavy firepower amassed along Ukraine's border.
'It may be that he [Putin] just switches off his tanks and we all go home but there is a whiff of Munich in the air from some in the West,' he added.
A source explained that Mr Wallace was concerned that if Putin strikes 'come what may, then all the diplomacy would have been a straw man'.
US officials have discussed receiving intelligence that Russia is considering Wednesday as a target date to strike, but it was unclear how definitive the intelligence was.
But Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky sought to downplay the threat, saying: 'The best friend of our enemies is panic in our country. And all this information is just provoking panic and can't help us.'
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the White House of stoking 'hysteria'.
Adolf Hitler greets British Prime Minister Neville chamberlain at Munich 1938. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace likened the West's attempts to stop a Russian invasion of Ukraine to the failure to prevent WWII
Ben Wallace said there is a 'whiff of Munich in the air', in an apparent reference to the agreement that allowed German annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938 but failed to prevent the Second World War. Pictured: Helicopter fires missiles beneath clear blue skies during a Russian-Belarusian joint military drill on Saturday
Ukrainians attend an open military training for civilians range as part of the 'Don't panic! Get ready! ' which is carried out by veterans of the Azov battalion on a training range in Kyiv amid the threat of Russian invasion, Feb 12, 2022Poland is among the countries that are preparing to absorb an influx of people fleeing conflict if it does break out.
Writing on the website of the think tank the Atlantic Council in December last year about a potential refugee crisis, Mr Reznikov said: 'A major war in Ukraine would plunge the whole of Europe into crisis.
'The sudden appearance of between three and five million Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion would be just one of many major concerns facing European society.
'For example, the EU relies heavily on food imports including grain. A major war would seriously disrupt and possibly prevent entirely many imports from both Ukraine and Russia, creating a whole range of food security problems for the entire continent.'
Poland is one nation neighbouring Ukraine that is preparing for an influx of refugees.
Speaking earlier this month, the country's deputy interior minister, Maciej Wasik, told Polish radio: 'We have to be prepared for the worst-case scenario and [we have] been taking steps so as to be prepared for a wave of up to a million people.'
Armed Forces minister James Heappey warned Russia is in a position to be able to attack 'very, very quickly', with an estimated 130,000 troops on Ukraine's border
The alleged invasion plans, reported by German newspaper Der Spiegel, are said to detail specific routes that might be taken by individual Russian units and were analysed by the Secret Service, the CIA and the Pentagon before being handed over to President Joe Biden's government.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held an emergency call with Russian diplomat Sergei Lavrov to discuss the crisis yesterday, after the 'extremely detailed' plans stoked fears of war in eastern Europe.
He warned his Russian counterpart that further aggression from Moscow would be met with a 'resolute, massive and united transatlantic response'.
Mr Blinken had said that the crisis had reached a 'pivotal moment', adding that there continues to be 'very troubling signs of Russian escalation', including new forces arriving close to Ukraine's borders.
But speaking during a live broadcast yesterday, Mr Zelensky told the US: 'If you have 100 percent-certain information about a Russian invasion of Ukraine, please share it with us'.
He added that he realised 'such risks do exist' and that his country remains ready to take any measure necessary and 'from any border.'
After the Foreign Office's warning for British citizens to leave, the first haul of visibly relieved British families arrived at UK airports yesterday, including a medical student from Birmingham and a couple with a young daughter, who landed at Gatwick airport.
The student said the call for Britons to flee Ukraine caused 'quite a panic' and a rush to return home.
Ali Haider said after landing at Gatwick Airport from Kyiv on Saturday: 'I'd been in two minds about coming back because of the advice coming out by the British Embassy, about the amber alert, red alert.
'A lot of people, a lot of students were waiting for the red alert, and it happened yesterday. Once that happened, everybody booked their tickets and left as soon as possible.'
The 21-year-old from Birmingham said his university, the Dnipro Medical Institute in Dnipro, a city in central Ukraine, had advised students to 'get out as soon as you can'.
He said around half the students at the university are British.
Mr Ali said: 'I think the main thing that people were getting worried about as well is, because it's along the Dnieper River, a lot of the people were saying, if Putin wants to suffocate Kyiv, push his warships along that path as well.'
The student said he had paid £210 for his one-way flight ticket and thought prices would get much more expensive over the next three days as more people rush out of the country.
He said he was hoping to return to Ukraine by June to continue his studies.
Mr Ali said Ukrainians' opinions were split on the likelihood of a Russian incursion, but that the perception that Western media were blowing the crisis out of proportion was changing.
He said: 'The Ukrainians are generally very laissez-faire as in terms of people, but the last couple of days they've started to get worried. And when that happens, alarm bells should be ringing.'
Another British citizen arriving at Gatwick on the same plane said Ukrainians did not seem worried.
Paul Meakin, 51, from Poole in Dorset, his Ukrainian-British wife Svetlana, 36, and their daughter, who had spent a week in Ukraine to attend a funeral, said most passengers on their flight had been Ukrainian, not British.
Asked about people's attitudes there, the IT company chief said: 'You wouldn't even know. They don't care, that's what came across.'
That sentiment was echoed by Ukrainian Pasha Honcharuk, 24, from Kyiv, who said he was 'not too worried' and that he would have stayed home if it were not for work in the UK.
He said: 'All news channels tell that there will be war but I don't think so.'
But a Ukrainian business analyst, who did not want to be named, said 'of course everybody's worried' about the threat of war. But she said this had not influenced her pre-existing decision to move to London from Kyiv for work.
Relieved: Paul Meakin, his wife Svetlana and their daughter (pictured left) arrive at Gatwick from Kiev, Ukraine, after being urged to leave the country amid mounting tensions with Russia. Pictured right: Haider Ali, 21, from Birmingham, is all smiles as he arrives safe and sound at Gatwick from Ukraine, where he studies at a medical university
Ken Stewart, 54, and his wife Tania, 36, (pictured together) are stranded as their baby Douglas does not yet have a passport, according to The Mirror
Ben Garratt, and his wife Alice - both from Queen's Park in London - are also trapped waiting for their surrogate-born baby to receive documentation
Daniel Williams, 45, who is originally from the Isle of Wight and now lives in Kyiv as a business investor, has a four-month-old daughter with his Ukrainian wifeWhile many of the 6,000 Britons in Ukraine have already fled via air or west into Poland, there have also been reports of British families with newborns becoming trapped in the country waiting for the correct documentation.
Ken Stewart, 54, and his wife Tania, 36, are stranded as their baby Douglas does not yet have a passport, according to The Mirror.
Douglas was born weighing 9lbs by cesarean section, and he and his mother are in a Kyiv hospital. Mr Stewart, originally from Edinburgh, and his family now face an anxious wait to see if they can get out in time.
Meanwhile, Ben Garratt and his wife Alice - both from Queen's Park in London - are also trapped waiting for their surrogate-born baby to receive documentation.
The couple moved to Kyiv in December where their son was born thanks to the 'very different surrogacy laws' in Ukraine that allow for a swifter IVF and surrogacy process.
Mr Garratt said he and his wife are growing increasingly concerned after the Foreign Office updated its advice on Friday evening to encourage UK nationals to leave.
Another British man - Daniel Williams, 45 - who is originally from the Isle of Wight and now lives in Kyiv as a business investor, has a four-month-old daughter with his Ukrainian wife.
They are also stuck in the country, he has said. Mr Williams' wife has a valid travel visa, but their baby does not yet have a British passport or a Ukrainian passport to get to the UK by commercial means.'
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