UK has provided Ukrainian troops with training and weapons

What is your general observation on the way the Russians have attacked Ukraine, targeting the civilians too?

This has been a completely unprovoked assault against an innocent neighbour. This is so abhorrent. This is not the way international affairs are conducted. This is not the way countries behave towards their neighbours and it is completely against international laws. So it is a really shocking and egregious act by Russia on its neighbours for which there is no conceivable excuse or justification. This is an illegal act. It is a complete black and white situation where Russia is behaving the way it is, completely unjustifiable and illegal. That is the first thing.

The second thing is, the way the campaign appears to be conducted clearly appears to be resulting in what is thought to be war crimes and it is notable that the International Criminal Court prosecutor has said he will be investigating what is going on. It is obviously hard sitting here to judge exactly what is actually happening in Ukraine, but there are credible media reports of heavy artillery being used in built up areas, of civilians being indiscriminately targeted and of heavy battlefield weapons being used. The campaign shouldn’t have been conducted in the first place. It was completely illegal to start with. And the way the campaign is being carried out, appears to be in breach of any sort of civilised behaviour and may well result in war crimes being committed. So the fact that it is taking place is appalling, and the way it is being conducted also appears to be appalling.

In terms of how we are responding , there has been an extraordinary degree of unity among the international community to this crisis. So we, our friends, partners and allies in the NATO, the European Union, the US and elsewhere have taken an unprecedented range of measures. Obviously sanctions are often used in these situations, but the shocking nature of what the Russians have done and the way of doing it, means we have imposed sanctions of unprecedented severity. And as an impact of that you can see in the fact that the ruble has crashed and the Russian central bank has had to double interest rates which is a crisis measure. So I think it is fair to say that we will be able to inflict quite a bit of economic pressure on Russia. And we hope that will have the effect of making Russia think again about its illegal, unprovoked, unjustified invasion of Ukraine. But if that doesn’t happen, then obviously these sanctions will remain in place. This includes banning Russian aircraft from aerospace, sanctioning Russian assets, a range of Russian banks and individuals, making it much harder for Russia to engage with the international economy.

There are some really unprecedented measures like Germany now deciding it will not commission the Nord Stream 2 pipe line. Then there is affecting a flight ban on Russian aircraft to a very wide range of countries and range of measures that will make it very difficult for Russia to use its reserves to prop up its currency. So these are measures that will have a real impact on Russia.

You mentioned that UK and its western allies including the US, Australia and other European countries are taking unprecedented strict measures on Russia both on the economic front as well as elsewhere. A few days have passed since then, but the Russia’s brutal attack continues. So do you still believe these strict measures will compel Russia to think twice and stop their attack on the people of Ukraine?

I don’t know exactly how decisions are being made within Russia. To be honest, the decision to attack Ukraine is so far outside the international norms, international politics, international law, that it is hard to predict how this will actually play out. But the point is, these are really serious sanctions that will cause very serious damage in the near term to the Russian economy. We very much hope that will prompt Russia and its president to rethink the illegal, unjustified and extremely violent invasion they have launched on against an innocent neighbouring state. I can’t predict what the time scale might be, but these are designed to be completely no nonsense. These sanctions are designed to share the shock and horror that the international community feels right across the borders.

How far is the West thinking of supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia by providing badly needed weaponry in the battlefield?

We have been training Ukrainian troops for some time now. Others have done things. UK alone has trained over 20,000 Ukrainian troops in the last eight years because the threat to Ukraine didn’t start this year. The threat started in 2014 when Russia seized Crimea and launched incursions into the region. So this is not completely new. We have also been training Ukrainian troops and supplying equipment to Ukraine over the past eight years to increase Ukraine’s ability as a sovereign country to defend itself

Due to Russia’s veto on Friday, the Security Council failed to adopt a resolution to immediately stop the aggression of Russia in Ukraine. We have already seen day before yesterday there was an unprecedented move by the Security Council to convene an emergency session of UNSC. How do you see the role of the UN in resolving the current crisis?

When the aggressor is a permanent member with a veto, it is obviously going to limit what can be done. But the calling of the emergency special session is a very significant move which has not been done for many, many years. So that is a very powerful political signal. We very much hope our friends in Bangladesh will join the international community in voting for that. We obviously hope in general Bangladesh will support its international friends making clear that it shares the international abhorrence of the violation of an innocent neighbour by a much larger neighbor on an unprovoked and completely unjustified basis.

So how far are you hopeful of a resolution to the current crisis through negotiations?

There were negotiations yesterday. They don’t appear to have led to a resolution. The answer lies with Russia. Ukraine did nothing to provoke this crisis. What we hope is that Russia will conclude that it has more to lose in continuing with the invasion. That is obviously a political calculation the Russians will make. But there should be no doubt that the international community is galvanised by this. This is a shocking reversion to the sort of state aggression we had hoped we had seen the last of in the 20th century. This changes the game of international relations very profoundly. It is in everyone’s interest that the cost is imposed on Russia very quickly, which we are trying to do through the sanctions package, so that Russia what is in its own best interests which will be to restore a normal relationship with the rest of the world, negotiating a quick end to the conflict and withdraws from Ukraine.

You mentioned that it would change the international game. Can you elaborate on what sort of change we may see in the coming days?

If you take a long view, since 1945 we have tried to live in a world governed by international law. It hasn’t always worked, it hasn’t always been perfect, but in general the last 75 years have been years where there has been peace and prosperity. Of course there have been examples like in Bangladesh where it hasn’t been able to reach a resolution without conflict. But in general, big states don’t attack their neighbours, but when legal norms and international norms are swept aside, it is very, very dangerous. A world where might is right and where international law is swept aside, is a very dangerous world.

I think all of us, and we in the UK, are strong supporters of the rules based international system and I think countries like Bangladesh too, which has become prosperous by trading successfully in a world that is governed by international law. I think we all have a lot to lose and countries like Bangladesh will have a lot to lose like anyone else if we revert to a world where unprovoked aggression is an accepted way of pursuing international disputes. That is very dangerous.

Last year the whole world struggled with Covid. The world economy is still struggling to overcome the burden. In that backdrop, do you believe the current crisis will severely impact the world economy and other activities? Will this prolong indefinitely?

This is a very significant piece of instability and that always has an impact on commodity prices, energy prices and its bad news for the world. We are dealing with an international situation that sees high tensions so I think there will be an economic impact. We are all going to probably have to pay more for our energy, more for our commodities, but that is the nature of a world that is being cast into instability by the unprovoked aggression by Russia. So it is a price everyone will be paying.

The world has other problems too. Covid is one. Climate change is another. We all need to be working together. It is obviously very unhelpful to be having to deal with an act of unprovoked aggression in addition to the underlying issues that we have to deal with concerning common humanity like Covid and climate change. There was a very alarming IPCC report released just yesterday revealing the underlying challenges of climate change remain just as serious. So it is very unfortunate that the Russian aggression has distracted us from these underlying challenges to humanity.

What do you expect from Bangladesh regarding this crisis?

I think everybody, and I would include Bangladesh, we all have an interest in the international rules based system and I think Bangladesh as a country in a part of the world that is increasingly contested, which often looks to the UN for support and help, we all have a massive interest in restoring the rules-based international system. One keeps coming back to the sheer scale, the violation of the international order that we have seen in the last week through an unprovoked illegal act of aggression by one large country against a neighbour. That completely undermines the whole principle on which we have tried to live since 1945.

I think every country including Bangladesh has an interest in supporting the rules based international system and as a friend we very much hope Bangladesh will join us in speaking up for the principles of the rules based system. And I hope Bangladesh will be in favour of the emergency special sanctions and will be willing to make clear Bangladesh is as shocked as anyone by what Russia has done.