as i said to president putin during our last conversation, we in the uk still hope that diplomacy and dialogue may yet succeed. but we also have to be unflinchingly honest about the situation today. when over 130,000 russian troops are gathering on the borders of ukraine, and when more than 100 battalion tactical groups threaten that european country, we must be united against that threat because we should be in no doubt what is at stake here. if ukraine is invaded and if ukraine is overwhelmed, we will witness the destruction of a democratic state, a country that has been free for a generation, with a proud history of elections. and every time that western ministers have visited kyiv, we have assured the people of ukraine and their leaders