NEW: The Prime Minister has been taken to intensive care.
Number 10: “Over the course of this afternoon, the condition of the Prime Minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital.”
PM was moved to intensive care at 7pm
Before he went he asked Dominic Raab to deputise for him. As far as coronavirus is concerned, Raab is the effective acting Prime Minister
Question will be whether, if the PM gets worse, the PM may have to temporarily resign and someone take the full responsibilities of the office
Assuming the PM is in intensive care, there will be, assuming recovery, a period of convalescence which could take some time
A couple of doctors, who are working on Covid19 frontline, told me this afternoon that the fact PM received oxygen treatment last night indicated strong possibility he had pneumonia. Question Number 10 has to answer is if that’s the case and if that was the case this afternoon.
We’re told that the PM is conscious and has been moved to intensive care in case he requires ventilation.
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President Biden: "Who in the Lord's name does Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called territories that belong to his neighbours? This is a flagrant breach of international law."
Biden: "We're implementing sanctions on their sovereign debt. We've cut off Russia's government from Western financing. They can no longer raise money from the West and cannot trade its new debt on our markets."
Biden: "We still believe that Russia is poised to go much further in launching a massive military attack against Ukraine."
Nation Sec General @jensstoltenberg: “This is a crisis created by Russia alone. We commend Ukraine for its restraint…we stand in solidarity with Ukraine’s people and its government…we will continue to provide Ukraine with strong political support.”
Stoltenberg: “I welcome the economic sanctions announced today by many NATO allies and the decision by the German government not to certify the Nordstream 2 pipeline.”
Stoltenberg: “This is the most dangerous moment for European security in a generation.”
Scholz says that this is in response to a “blatant breach of international law” and that “we need to reassess the situation... There will be a new course for this project.”
There are inevitably divisions but generally Western response has been in concert. Indeed most united the West has looked about anything for a long time.
Boris Johnson on Putin's move: "This is plainly in breach of international law, it’s a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine. It is a repudiation of the Minsk process and the Minsk Agreements. I think it’s a very ill omen and a very dark sign.”
UK Foreign Sec @trussliz: “This step represents a further attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, signals an end to the Minsk process and is a violation of the UN charter...We will not allow Russia’s violation of its international commitments to go unpunished.”
Putin address to Russian public: "The situation in Donbas is becoming critical...Ukraine is not just a neighbouring country to us, it is an inherent part of our history...our family."
There follows a long 'history' lesson. Putin claims that modern Ukraine was entirely created by Bolshevik, communist Russia and the USSR.
I wonder if any of us will be much the wiser after this.
Multiple reports saying that Putin has told Chancellor Scholz and President Macron that he intends to recognise the “breakaway” Moscow backed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states.
Minsk process would be dead. And Moscow would be saying that in its view yet another part of Ukraine would be/should be cut adrift from the whole.
In other words, following Ukraine in 2014, the slow dismemberment of one sovereign state by another, in modern Europe. The question then becomes what European leaders and the West choose to do about it, for fear of the example this is setting.