JAKARTA - Britain on Thursday called on Europe to uphold Ukraine's right to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited alliance headquarters to gather allies, sending his foreign minister to Moscow with a warning not to attack.
Russia has more than 100,000 troops on Ukraine's borders, leaving the United States, Britain, the European Union and NATO worried that it might be planning an invasion.
Moscow denies this but says it can take unspecified 'military-technical' action unless demands are met, including barring Ukraine from joining Western military alliances.
Britain's diplomatic boost comes as PM Johnson grapples with the prime minister's worst domestic political crisis, a police probe into parties during the COVID-19 lockdown at his official 10 Downing Street residence, prompting some lawmakers from his Conservative Party to call for him to resign. .
It also follows shuttle diplomacy from French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited Moscow and Kyiv earlier this week and, in contrast to US and British leaders, has played down the possibility of a Russian invasion.
PM Johnson, the most prominent figure in the Brexit campaign that took Britain out of the EU, said Britain "remains steadfast in our commitment to European security".
"As an alliance, we have to draw a line in the snow and make clear there are principles that we will not compromise on," said PM Johnson.
"That includes the security of every NATO ally and the right of every European democracy to aspire to be a member of NATO," he stressed.
While PM Johnson visited NATO and then Poland, Foreign Minister Liz Truss visited Moscow for talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"Basically, a war in Ukraine would be disastrous for the people of Russia and Ukraine, as well as for the security of Europe, and together with NATO it has been made clear that any attack on Ukraine will have great consequences and carry great costs," Truss told Lavrov.
Separately, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told Times Radio that no one would win from an aggressive invasion of a sovereign nation.
"What we're all really trying to do, whether you're in NATO or not in NATO, is protect the sovereign right of nations to choose their security alliances," Wallace said.
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