The UK faces a generation of "acute competition" with Russia, the armed forces minister said as he warned that all aspects of UK-Russia relations are "up for review".
James Heappey warned the Ministry of Defence must "prepare for the worst" and there are no signs that Russia is withdrawing troops from the Ukrainian border despite recent claims from the Kremlin.
"[Clearly] the worst case is that they cross the border and we end up with a major armed conflict," Mr Heappey told the Today programme.
"But in many ways as challenging is for this threat to remain in place with all of the impact that has on their internal security, their internal politics, their economy.
"As we enter into what could be a generation or longer of quite acute competition with Russia, all of the things that have become normal in Anglo-Russian relations in the last 30 years will be up for review and that’s what the Home Secretary and her team are looking at at the moment."
Separately, Tobias Ellwood, the Tory chairman of the Commons defence committee, said he hoped the West could agree to a no-fly zone to protect Ukraine at its "moment of need".
Follow the latest below.
The Margaret Thatcher Centre for Freedom in Washington DC is where British Tories go to let their hair down ideologically, writes the historian Andrew Roberts. It occupies an entire floor of the Heritage Foundation, America’s largest conservative think tank, and its director, Nile Gardiner, was one of Lady Thatcher’s favourite public intellectuals.
It is a place where British conservatives can speak directly to like-minded people, both in the US and around the world.
It was instructive, therefore, that Oliver Dowden, the Tory party chairman, chose the opportunity of a speech to the centre to make some important and hard-hitting points about the dangers that woke ideology poses.
For it is an argument that matters as much to America and the wider world as it does to the United Kingdom. The virulent response to the speech from the political Left has been almost equally as instructive.
Andrew Roberts: Government must act on Dowden's hard-hitting truths
Plans to scrap 'golden visas' as a response to the Russia-Ukraine crisis are a "blunt instrument", a leading barrister who specialises in corporate and financial crime has said.
Jonathan Fisher QC of Bright Line Law, warned the measure would make "no distinction at all" between clean and dirty money.
"I would argue that it's an overreaction," he said. "We must remember that many countries have investment visa arrangements to attract capital.
"The UK should be much more concerned with checking sources of funds and satisfying UK authorities that money is clean. The approach taken by the UK government will be significant, yes, but it is a blunderbuss approach that will affect honest investors wanting to come to the UK for decent and honest reasons."
Kyra Motley, of the Boodle Hatfield private wealth law firm, said the new measures could be "counterproductive" as the British economy looks to recover from the pandemic.
Sir Keir Starmer has said the government’s plan to end free Covid tests is a "mistake" and will make the pandemic worse, as he opened a new policy divide between Labour and ministers over the pandemic.
The Opposition leader backed calls from experts for lateral flow and PCR tests to remain free in Britain, as Boris Johnson prepares to set out the government’s "learning to live with Covid" strategy next week.
The Telegraph understands that Mr Johnson is likely to announce that free tests will end eventually, but they could continue until the spring, with officials expecting coronavirus cases to decline as the weather improves.
NHS staff, care home workers and teachers could be exempt from the crackdown, despite concerns from the Treasury about the ongoing cost of the policy.
？Tony Diver, our Political Correspondent, has the story
Multiple shelling incidents have been recorded along the line of contact between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said.
The separatists accused Ukrainian forces of conducting the mortar attacks, while Kyiv in turn accused the rebels of using artillery, hitting a kindergarten. No casualties have been reported.
"Despite the fact that our positions were fired on with prohibited weapons, including 122 mm artillery, Ukrainian troops did not open fire in response," a duty press officer of the Ukrainian Join Forces Operation said.
Responding to the alleged incident, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov warned the "situation near the borders of Russia can ignite at any moment."
Marcus Parekh and Genevieve Holl-Allen have the latest
Today Liz Truss will fly out to eastern Europe - where, in a piece for today's Telegraph, she says the spectre of Russian aggression has loomed for too long.
Liz Truss: Russia must step back from the brink
The UK should never seek a "special relationship" with the EU, Lord Frost has said in response to demands from a Labour MP.
Darren Jones claimed in an article for Red Box that while the Government "might aspire to a special relationship" there was no reason Brussels would currently agree to this, as he called for a "reset" of relations to enable collaboration on the economy and climate issues.
Lord Frost, the former Brexit minister who quit Boris Johnson's Cabinet at the end of last year, responded by arguing there were "unfortunately many misunderstandings" in Mr Jones's piece.
"The biggest is that Government policy under Boris Johnson is to seek a 'special relationship' with the EU," he wrote. "That was never the policy. Nor should it be.
"Our policy was, and I believe still is, one of a 'friendly relationship between sovereign equals'. That is the correct policy for a country like ours with global interests. So it is entirely reasonable for both sides to treat each other as close neighbours but as third countries."
The Prime Minister spoke to Scott Morrison, the Australian prime minister, last night to discuss "new measures to boost bilateral cooperation".
It comes amid reports in the Mail today that Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, has hired Alexander Downer - a former Australian foreign minister - to carry out a review of the UK Border Force.
"The UK and Australia are the closest of friends and historic allies," Mr Johnson wrote.
"Scott Morrison and I agreed to strengthen the partnership between our nations, making it fit for the next century and grounded in our shared priorities on security, democracy and trade."
Dame Cressida Dick "didn't understand the scale of the change required" in the Metropolitan Police, Sadiq Khan has told LBC.
The Mayor denied reports he issued an ultimatum to Dame Cressida to sack the Charing Cross officers or to be sacked, adding: "The plans in [her] letter weren't enough, then before we could meet last Thursday the Commissioner resigned."
Mr Khan insisted he was "more than happy" to speak to the chairman of the Police Federation, which withdrew its support for Mr Khan's leadership on Monday.
While there were "thousands of dedicated, decent police officers", Mr Khan maintained: "You should be really upset, angry [and] disgusted by a culture in the words of the IPC that is not isolated.
"I think if you talk about 'wrong 'uns', or a few 'rotten apples', you don't understand what the IPC highlighted. The current leadership clearly doesn't have a plan to address the cultural issues. You acknowledge there is a serious issue, you plan to address the serious issue and three you implement the plan."
A no-fly zone would help to protect Ukraine from a Russian invasion, the Conservative chairman of the Commons defence committee has said.
Tobias Ellwood claimed the West is "not doing enough" to help Ukraine at its "moment of need".
"Initially a no-fly zone would be very helpful indeed," he told Sky News. "That's something I hope can be explored at the Munich security conference."
He had previously called for British troops to be sent into Ukraine, but now says "that option has departed".
More Russian troops are moving towards the Ukrainian border, according to armed forces minister James Heappey - who believes that a conflict remains imminent.
"More troops are moving closer to the Ukrainian border, bridges are being built, field hospitals being constructed," he told Sky News.
"And all of that is, I think, quite worrying. It goes to underline the imminence of this if not the inevitability."
More than 500 postmasters are yet to come forward to have their convictions overturned and the Government should set up an independent body to support them, a group of MPs has said.
In a report published today, the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee said the Post Office IT scandal had created "inherent mistrust" among many of those who were wrongly convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting between 2000 and 2012.
More than 700 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses were convicted after the Post Office blamed them for shortfalls that were actually the result of a faulty IT system. However, only 72 have had their convictions quashed. Of those, 66 have applied for interim compensation payments of ￡100,000.
MPs said that the Government should urgently establish an independent body, which could act as "a trusted first point of contact" for those wrongly convicted. It comes after an inquiry into the scandal heard that victims were reluctant to come forward because they were afraid of the Post Office.
Gurpreet Narwan, our Consumer Affairs Editor, has more
UK voters did not understand what they were voting for when they backed Brexit in 2016, the European Parliament said.
In a report on the Article 50 process, which allows members to leave, MEPs suggested they could have swung the vote for Remain if they had campaigned and warned the "often misled" British voters of the risks of leaving.
But a UK government source told The Telegraph: "Being lectured on transparency by the European Parliament shows just how little many in the EU have learnt from Brexit.
"Rather than continue to patronise the British people over a legitimate decision they took to take back control from Brussels, they should focus their efforts in areas where the UK and EU can work together."
MEPs demanded that the European Commission bring forward legislation to allow European political parties to finance future referendum campaigns on EU treaties, and claimed Brussels had been victorious in tough Brexit negotiations.
？James Crisp has the full story
Russian officials wasted little time mocking the West for incorrectly predicting that Moscow's invasion of Ukraine would begin yesterday.
"I'd like to ask if US and British sources of disinformation ... could publish the schedule of our upcoming invasions for the year. I'd like to plan my holidays," Maria Zakharova, Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman, wrote on social media.
Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's ambassador to the European Union, accused Westerners of "slander" for alleging an invasion was afoot and insisted in an interview with German daily newspaper Welt: "Wars in Europe rarely start on a Wednesday."
The statement seemed more flippant than historically significant. World War I started on a Tuesday and World War II started in Europe on a Friday, but Europe's history of war over centuries includes conflicts that kicked off throughout the week.
Report: Vladimir Putin leaves the West guessing
James Heappey said the question 'Winston Churchill: Hero or War Criminal?' - as used in a lesson plan for secondary school students in 2020 - "sticks in my craw".
The armed forces minister was asked by Times Radio about the question, which appeared on the website of a global education company, in light of new guidance to schools (see 8.32am) which seeks to clamp down on politics in the classroom.
"It sticks in my craw but maybe I’m overly patriotic and I think there is no harm at all in, as part of your study of history, to ask yourselves provocative questions as a vehicle for seeing both sides of the argument," he said.
"I think one of the things that is missing in schools and in society more generally now is a willingness to consider something that is uncomfortable and have the intellectual curiosity to want to see the argument from the other side.
"If it’s a provocative question to encourage people to explore both sides of the argument and think beyond what is the widely held view… that’s surely a good thing. If it’s a vehicle for revisionism and to try to promote the idea that Churchill was something other than what we regard him as, I'm uncomfortable with that because that’s a political agenda."
Angela Rayner insisted that she is "quite hardline" on law and order, telling a live podcast recording: "Shoot your terrorists and ask questions second."
Asked by the BBC in 2015 if he would be happy to order police to shoot to kill on Britain's streets after the Bataclan terror attacks, Sir Keir Starmer's predecessor Jeremy Corbyn said: "I’m not happy with a shoot-to-kill policy in general", adding that it can be "quite dangerous" and "counter-productive".
Mr Corbyn said there were "various degrees of doing things as we know... surely you have to work to prevent these things from happening, that's got to be the priority".
But insisting she was not "soft left" on everything, Ms Rayner told Matt Forde's Political Party podcast: "On certain things I’m not, because on things like law and order I am quite hardline. I’m like, shoot your terrorists and ask questions second, if I’m honest. Sorry - that’s the most controversial thing I've ever said! But on the economy I’m really radical.
"On law and order, I think if you are being terrorised by the local thug, then yeah I want a copper to come and sort them out. You should be hardline on things like that. You can’t pigeonhole me.
"I said that to Jeremy. Don’t ever put me in that position because you won’t like me. We’re on a different page on things like that, but that’s the beauty of the Labour Party for me."
HMS Queen Elizabeth, the UK’s biggest-ever warship, is our main conventional strategic deterrent.
The new carrier and fleet flagship, together with eight escorts (destroyers, frigates, supply ships and a submarine) comprise Carrier Strike Group 21 (CSG21) – the most powerful naval force to leave the UK in a generation.
HMS Queen Elizabeth, a chunk of British sovereign territory, is part warship, part floating embassy.
As the embodiment of 'Global Britain', her charge is to deliver "power projection" on behalf of the nation: on the one hand that means hard-edged, lethal warfare; on the other it’s about soft, political persuasion through deterrence, as well as overt support for allies around the world.
Our interactive graphic takes you on a tour as Chris Terrill explains life on board
Teachers have been forbidden from promoting Black Lives Matter to children as part of a crackdown on politics in the classroom.
Schools must ensure that any "contentious and disputed" historic periods such as the British Empire and imperialism are taught in a "balanced" manner, according to guidance published by the Department for Education (DfE).
It is the first time in a generation that ministers have addressed the issue of impartiality in education and comes amid mounting concern in Whitehall about the politicisation of lessons.
Ministers fear Left-wing lobby groups have been hijacking the syllabus and stirring up tensions in schools. Last year, The Telegraph revealed that the teaching of "white privilege" is rife in schools despite warnings that it is unlawful.
Camilla Turner, our Education Editor, has the story
The UK faces at least a generation of "acute competition" with Russia, the armed forces minister said this morning.
Noting changes that were made to the 'golden visa' scheme in 2015 and 2019, James Heappey said there were "absolutely" plans to toughen the scheme after it emerged last night that Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, is likely to cancel it as soon as next week.
"As we enter into what could be a generation or longer of quite acute competition with Russia, all of the things that have become normal in Anglo-Russian relations in the last 30 years will be up for review," Mr Heappey said.
"That’s what the Home Secretary and her team are looking at at the moment."
The armed forces minister warned "tens of thousands" of people could die if Russia were to press ahead with an invasion of Ukraine and trigger a land war in Europe.
"If you’re going to deploy that number of troops with all of the military hardware, with all of the key combat enablers… that’s an incredibly expensive way of getting the West’s attention or just winding us up," Mr Heappey told the Today programme.
"My fear is that’s not what’s happened but if it is that’s great because the alternative is a major conflict in Europe in which tens of thousands of people could die."
Mr Heappey stressed diplomacy is "key" in ongoing efforts to de-escalate the crisis, but expressed his fear the situation is "still heading in the wrong direction".
All aspects of UK-Russia relations are "up for review", the armed forces minister warns this morning ahead of a planned crackdown on so-called 'golden visas'.
Here is the front page of your Daily Telegraph:
Need help?
Visit our adblocking instructions page.