'Where will he stop, what will he do?': Leicester's Ukraine community fear Putin's next steps
Rutland and Melton MP Alicia Kearns says sanctions on Russia aren't enough
Last updated 23rd Feb 2022
Members of Leicester's Ukrainian community are "shocked", after President Putin announced that Russian troops would cross the border into Eastern Ukraine.
Russia says the move was to provide "peacekeeping functions" in Luhansk and Donetsk, two regions being held by rebels that President Putin deemed as independent.
Sanctions have since been imposed on Russia by Western countries and their allies, with the UK freezing the assets of five banks and three Russian billionaires.
Wol Wojeich, Secretary of Leicester's Ukrainian Club, says Putin's order for peaceful intervention is a smokescreen:
"This is only the start and I just think really, to be honest with you, both here in Leicester and right across the UK and in Ukraine, everybody is shocked at what has happened.
"Having spoken to a couple of friends last night, they are extremely worried now. He's (Putin) made the first transgression. Where will he stop? that's the next question. What will he do?
He says troops moving into Eastern Ukraine is all part of Putin's wider plan to rebuild Russia as it once was:
"There's no doubt in my mind or in most Ukrainian minds that that's exactly what it is... it's a front. He's looked for any excuse now to get himself into Ukraine and bring the troops in.
"Very few Ukrainians, if any, actually want to go back into the Soviet Union as it was, or the Russian Empire, which is what Putin is trying to rebuild. He won't stop just at the East, he will try and get other parts of Ukraine, he's already got Crimea."
Sanctions should hit Putin "rouble by rouble"
Alicia Kearns, MP for Rutland and Melton and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, says the Prime Minister's sanctions are a start, but they're not enough:
"We are all gravely concerned by what is essentially a renewed invasion of Ukraine. We absolutely need to be putting in the sanctions in place that the Government has announced, but actually I want to see us go further. Because in my view, rouble by rouble, we must rid our nation of Putin's dirty money and bring greater cost to him.
"I urge the Prime Minister to blacklist all Russian banks and to ban the city and all law and accountancy firms from servicing Russian state firms, but also to work with Turkey to deny Russia's navy passage through the Bosporus.
"There are further things we should be doing at this stage, yes I welcome what he announced but we should be going further now, because there is much more that needs to be done to prevent bloodshed and to stop further invasion and the paramilitaries going over the border with the so-called peacekeeping troops."