THE political rhetoric against Russia has intensified with David Cameron denouncing outright the unjustified presence of its troops on Ukrainian soil .
He also accused Moscow of trying to force its smaller neighbour to "abandon its democratic choices at the barrel of a gun".
His remarks came as it was announced Nato leaders are to consider, at this week's summit in Wales, the creation of a new high-readiness force and the stockpiling of military equipment and supplies in Eastern Europe.
They would be there to help protect member nations against potential aggression from Russia, a suggestion made recently by the House of Commons Defence Committee.
"The presence of Russian soldiers on Ukrainian soil is completely unjustified and unacceptable," said the Prime Minister in a Commons statement.
The real cause of this conflict, he told MPs, was Russia's refusal to recognise Ukraine's independence and sovereignty. Decisions on Ukraine's political and economic relationships should be for the people of Ukraine and no-one else. He said: "Russia appears to be trying to force Ukraine to abandon its democratic choices at the barrel of a gun. In the last two weeks, we've seen a dramatic stepping up of Russian military support to the separatists in eastern Ukraine, including Russian troops fighting on the ground.
"We know from European history the grave danger of a nation state being threatened and undermined in this way, so the European Council agreed that the economic costs it has already imposed on Russia must be stepped up if Moscow persists with these indefensible actions,"
Ed Miliband said "continued Russian aggression must be met with a robust, co-ordinated and united international response".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article