Ukraine war: Boris Johnson tells Sky News he fears Vladimir Putin may use chemical weapons as it is ‘straight out of Russia’s playbook’

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Boris Johnson has stated he fears Vladimir Putin could deploy chemical weapons in Ukraine as that might be "straight out of Russia's playbook".Talking on Sky Information' Beth Rigby Interviews programme, the prime minister stated the one means the struggle in Ukraine can finish is that if the Russian president realises he has made a "catastrophic …

Boris Johnson has stated he fears Vladimir Putin could deploy chemical weapons in Ukraine as that might be “straight out of Russia’s playbook”.

Talking on Sky Information’ Beth Rigby Interviews programme, the prime minister stated the one means the struggle in Ukraine can finish is that if the Russian president realises he has made a “catastrophic mistake”.

Putin may use chemical weapons

Mr Johnson reiterated Western officers’ fears that Mr Putin may use chemical weapons in Ukraine after Moscow accused Kyiv of planning to deploy them within the battlefield.

“The stuff that you just’re listening to about chemical weapons is straight out of their playbook,” he stated.

“They begin saying that there are chemical weapons which have been saved by their opponents or by the People.

Observe reside updates on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

“And so once they themselves deploy chemical weapons, as I concern they might, they’ve a form of maskirovka – a faux story – able to go.

“You’ve got seen it in Syria. You noticed it even within the UK. That is what they’re already doing. It’s a cynical, barbaric authorities.”

On Wednesday, Moscow stated it had uncovered a army organic weapons programme in Ukraine involving lethal pathogens comparable to plague and anthrax and referred to as on the US to elucidate the “Ukrainian organic weapons lab”.

A US official dismissed the declare as “absurd propaganda” and accused Russia of searching for retroactive pretexts for the struggle.

However on Thursday, White Home press secretary Jen Psaki stated of the Kremlin: “They’ve the capability and the aptitude.”

Requested about Mr Johnson’s warning, former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele instructed Sky Information: “I definitely assume should you take a look at what’s occurred in Syria and Chechnya and naturally, what occurred on our personal streets in Salisbury, I would not rule it out in any respect.

“I feel because the Russian military turns into slowed down and clearly not realising its goals militarily you might be more likely to see extra indiscriminate killing and bombardment and possibily using a chemical weapons.”

Key developments:
• Diplomatic talks in Turkey between Ukraine and Russia finish with out settlement
• Russia may use chemical or organic weapons in Ukraine, US warns
• Roman Abramovich sanctioned by UK authorities amid crackdown on Russian oligarchs
• British troops should not go to Ukraine to combat and ‘take some selfies’, Armed Forces minister warns
• Fleeing Ukrainian refugees can apply for digital visas to come back to the UK

Evaluation: PM’s warning is probably going counter try and Putin’s misinformation

Former chief of UK defence intelligence Air Marshall Philip Osborne instructed Sky Information the PM could have been warning a few chemical weapons assault as a result of he has “actually high-grade intelligence”.

“What’s extra doubtless is that is a part of data warfare so Boris Johnson is making an attempt to pre-empt or reply to data Putin goes to make use of chemical weapons,” he stated.

“So he may go actually exhausting on the rhetoric, structured round Russian misinformation about chemical weapons services being in Ukraine.

“It is extra doubtless this can be a narrative/counter-narrative escalation.”

He added that Russia’s accusation Ukraine has chemical weapons may both be a story to “pre-empt” their use in Ukraine by the Kremlin or an excuse for why the invasion occurred within the first place.

“The problem is realizing which one – and that is a part of what the West now has to grapple with, and what does it imply for Ukraine and the remainder of the world,” he stated.

He added that if Russia did use chemical weapons it might be a “vital escalation and can be disproportionate to something we have seen”.

Nevertheless, he stated: “We are able to by no means know what Putin’s considering, you recognize what he is saying and doing, however not what he is considering. It is actually harmful to be actually particular.”

Solely Putin can settle for he has made a ‘catastrophic mistake’

On whether or not there’s a compromise to make Russia halt the invasion, the PM stated it “is determined by Putin and it is as much as him and to him alone”.

“I feel he wants to grasp that he is made a disastrous miscalculation and that everyone can see that issues aren’t progressing in the best way that he hoped,” he added.

“His finest guess, I feel, is to withdraw, to stop the violence and to permit a peaceable negotiation to start.”

He added that Mr Putin may both select to simply accept he has made a “catastrophic mistake now…or a bit afterward” however it’s “as much as the Kremlin”.

Mr Johnson warned the Russian president “wants to grasp that his choices aren’t good” however Mr Putin himself has “made it very troublesome to search out a suggestion”.

:: Watch Beth Rigby Interviews… on Sky Information – on TV, on-line and the app – at 9pm tonight

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