Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 703 Russia

In extremis, a wartime government could inter anyone deemed a threat to public order or the war effort. The conflict in Ukraine offers a glimpse of how Britain might prepare for self-defence. Public buildings and metro stations would be used as air raid shelters, while anti-aircraft guns might be hidden in parks. For decades the European Union has heavily relied on Russia's oil and gas, generating money and cash for Russia. But Russia is also reliant on revenues from fossil fuel sales, which make up around two fifths of government revenue. Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, this month repeated that the UK wants to increase defence spending from 2.1% of GDP to 2.5% in the future.

• Hungary has signalled it is ready to compromise on EU funding for Ukraine - after Brussels reportedly prepared to sabotage its economy if it did not comply.
• Ukraine said on Friday that Russia had returned the bodies of 77 soldiers, the AFP news agency reports, days after the crash of a Russian military transport plane threw doubt on the future of such exchanges.
• Oil prices have also risen since the invasion, given Russia’s role as an oil producer and as a form of security for investors as the stock market slumps.
• Labour has avoided making any firm spending commitments, but has criticised cuts to the size of the army and promised to launch a defence review if elected.
• This culminated on 29 December, when Russian unleashed its largest aerial assault against Ukraine since the war began.
• "They're always trying to find a better way to break our air defence systems and make their attack more efficient," Oleksandr Musiyenko at Ukraine's Center for Military Legal Research told the BBC.

These are conflicts involving a strong military force going into a situation in which it has superiority, so it can win easily - for example the Gulf and Iraq wars and conflicts in Sierra Leone and Kosovo. “Millions of companies across Britain” were warned “to prepare for a Russian cyber attack” after the government slapped sanctions on Moscow, the Daily Mail reported. Coupled with warnings of an April cost of living crisis, Russia’s actions will likely “push the average price of petrol over £1.50 in the latest blow to household finances”, he added. UK officials said they are “braced for significant petrol price rises at the pump”.

One senior Conservative MP told the BBC he did not think Rishi Sunak had fully appreciated the threat posed by Russia. He highlighted steps being taken in countries like Sweden and Finland - where the threat of Russia looms closer - to put their nations more on a war footing. He talked about the need for the UK's "pre-war generation" to prepare for the possibility of war and said that was a "whole-of-nation undertaking". The documents revealing the decision to station nuclear warheads in the UK were posted on a US government procurement website. President Joe Biden said that the US would “enhance our force posture in Europe to respond to the change in the security environment”. RAF Lakenheath is expected to house B61-12 gravity bombs, which have a variable yield of up to 50 kilotons – more than three times the power of the atomic weapon dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

• Mr Szijarto will be in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba and presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak.
• This included £2.5 billion in military support and a historic long-term security agreement.
• Mr Johnson was among leaders of the G7 group of wealthy nations who met to discuss the situation.
• Construction on a new housing facility for American forces working on the site will begin in June.
• There would also be concerns about looting, especially if food shortages started to bite.
• They engaged Ukrainian troops in 98 combat engagements, and carried out four air strikes and 78 shellings with reactive bullets.

For now the UK appears likely to stick to sanctions rather than engaging in direct military action unless a Nato ally is attacked, although some Conservative MPs have called for the Government to provide air support to Ukraine. Forces are on standby in eastern Europe, and Nato is working with Ukraine to modernise its forces and protect it against cyber attacks. "Within the next three years, it must be credible to talk of a British Army of 120,000, folding in our reserve and strategic reserve. But this is not enough," he said, as he also called for more to be done to modernise and equip the armed forces. I offer my condolences and that of the UK to all Ukrainians for the lives lost due to these barbaric airstrikes.

‘Your country needs you’

The decline in manufacturing means there are far fewer factories that can be converted to make arms, as happened in the Second World War, when car makers churned out Spitfire parts. And in a globalised world, many industries that are key in wartime rely on imports. "Renewables have a distinct security of supply advantage in that they don't require refuelling," explains environment expert Antony Froggatt. In response to the current crisis, the EU is proposing expedite plans to link Ukrainian's electricity system to the EU's, which would boost Ukraine's independence from Russia's grid, with which it is currently tied.

• Hungary previously said it would block further financial aid to Ukraine, but this morning suggested it was ready to compromise after the EU reportedly drew up plans to hit Budapest's economy.
• Joe Biden is pressing Congress to embrace a bipartisan Senate deal to pair border enforcement measures with aid for Ukraine.
• Only aircraft deployed to protect energy facilities, or those carrying top Russian or foreign officials, will be allowed to fly with special permission in the designated zones, according to the Vedomosti daily newspaper.
• Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he supported action the government was taking on sanctions but urged ministers to "go further and faster".
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Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she had summoned the Russian ambassador to explain Russia's "illegal, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine" and that the UK would be "imposing severe sanctions". Martial law - which means the military takes control temporarily - has been imposed across the whole of Ukraine and traffic jams built up as people fled the capital city of Kyiv. He said on Twitter he would also speak to his fellow G7 leaders and called for an urgent meeting of all Nato leaders as soon as possible. Russia’s invasion caused international stock markets to drop dramatically, with the FTSE 100 in London falling by 3.2 per cent.

There would also be concerns about looting, especially if food shortages started to bite. While Covid was a useful exercise in Armageddon planning, 21st-century Britain is arguably less ready for actual warfare than it was even 30 years ago. At the end of the Cold War, most of the 100-strong network of nuclear bunkers were closed, along with around 1,500 underground posts for the Royal Observer Corps, a 10,000-strong volunteer force. A small group of around 18 Conservative MPs want the UK to increase its own fossil fuel supply by boosting North Sea fossil fuel production and lift the fracking moratorium. Leaders including Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen have both called for an accelerated roll-out of clean energy. The German government has brought forward its target for 100% renewable electricity by five years to 2035.

Gen Sir Richard Barrons, the former head of the British Joint Forces Command, told the committee that he doubted there were “sufficient munitions to sustain a high-intensity conflict for more than about a week”. Right now, such scenarios tend to exercise only the minds of Ministry of Defence war-gamers and military thriller writers. But far-fetched as they might sound, General Sir Patrick Sanders, the head of Britain’s army, believes it is time we dwelt on them more.

On Tuesday, the chief of Norway’s armed forces said the country must increase defence spending in the face of a potential war with Russia within three years, following its neighbour Sweden in urging citizens to brace for conflict. Ukrainian banks and government websites were hit with a spate of cyber attacks last week prior to the deployment of Russian troops to Luhansk and Donetsk. Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation said the attacks have continued since the full invasion.