Elite troops will bolster

The spectre of a widening war loomed last night as Western leaders agreed to deploy troops to protect Nato allies close to Russia and Ukraine. Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said US President Joe Biden and his counterparts have agreed to send parts of the organisation’s response force and elements of a quickly deployed spearhead unit.

The move came as the UK prepared to follow the EU in ramping up sanctions, with measures being taken to freeze the assets of Russian President Vladimir Putin and foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.

Speaking after chairing a summit in Brussels, Mr Stoltenberg did not reveal how many troops would be deployed, but confirmed that the move would involve land, sea and air power.

The Nato Response Force (NRF) can number up to 40,000 troops, but Mr Stoltenberg said Nato would not be deploying the entire force.

Parts of a force known in Nato jargon as the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF), which is currently led by France, will also be sent.

“We are now deploying the NRF for the first time in a collective defence context.

“We speak about thousands of troops. We speak about air and maritime capabilities,” Mr Stoltenberg said.

The world’s biggest security organisation previously had around 5,000 troops stationed in the Baltic countries – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – and Poland, but has significantly beefed up its defences over the past three months.

“Russia has shattered peace on the European continent,” Mr Stoltenburg said.

“What we have warned against for months has come to pass despite all of our efforts to find a diplomatic solution.

“Moscow bears sole responsibility for the deliberate, cold-blooded and long-planned invasion.”

Ahead of the summit, Mr Stoltenberg had vowed the 30-nation military organisation would “defend every ally against any attack on every inch of Nato territory”.

Some of Nato’s 30 member countries are supplying arms, ammunition and other equipment to Ukraine, but Nato as an organisation is not.

It will not launch any military action in support of Ukraine, which is a close partner but has no prospect of joining.

The Baltic members, however, have said the West should “urgently provide Ukrainian people with weapons, ammunition and any other kind of military support to defend itself as well as economic, financial and political assistance and support, humanitarian aid”.

Nato began beefing up its defences in north-eastern Europe after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

Recently, some members have also sent troops, aircraft and warships to the Black Sea region, near allies Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey.

Short-term, Nato has activated an emergency planning system to allow commanders to move forces more quickly.

The Pentagon said it is sending 7,000 troops to Europe in addition to 5,000 recently deployed personnel.

Nato surveillance aircraft have begun patrols inside allied territory. The planes would be able to watch Russian fighter jet and transport movements inside Ukraine.

Lithuania declared a state of emergency. The county’s borders Russia’s Kaliningrad region to the south west and Belarus to the east.

The Baltic country’s move allows for a more flexible use of state reserve funds and increased border protection, giving border guards greater authorities to stop and search individuals and vehicles.

“We cannot take the luxury to be (a) discussion club,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said at an emergency summit of European Union leaders held to impose a “heavy price” on Russia through sanctions.

“We need to take action.” Meanwhile the UK will “imminently” level personal sanctions against Mr Putin and Mr Lavrov.

The prime minister told Nato leaders in a virtual meeting the UK would echo measures announced by the EU and the US.

Referring to Mr Putin’s wish to recover territory which previously fell under the USSR, Mr Johnson said Russia was “engaging in a revanchist mission to overturn postCold War order”.

Mr Johnson told allies “the UK would introduce sanctions against President Putin and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov imminently, on top of the sanctions package the UK announced yesterday”.

“He warned the group that the Russian president’s ambitions might not stop there and that this was a Euro-Atlantic crisis with global consequences,” a Number 10 spokesman said.

Mr Johnson also used the meeting to urge “immediate action” over the banning of Russia from the Swift payment system to “inflict maximum pain” on the Kremlin.

Swift is the dominant system for global financial transactions and the move was also discussed by EU foreign ministers.

The European Union’s approval of an asset freeze on the Russian leader and his foreign minister was a unanimous decision, part of a broader sanctions package.

Austrian foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg said the move would be “a unique step in history toward a nuclear power, a country that has a permanent seat on the Security Council, but also shows how united we are”.

President Joe Biden later announced that the US was also freezing the assets of Mr Putin and Mr Lavrov. It was not immediately clear how impactful an asset freeze would be on the pair

The Council of Europe suspended Russia from the continent’s leading human rights organisation. The 47-nation council said Russia remained a member and continued to be bound by relevant human rights conventions.

Russia started its own tit-for-tat measures, banning British flights to and over its territory in retaliation to a UK ban on Aeroflot flights.

Sergey Lavrov.