May 3rd live news updates: Putin and Macron discuss evacuation of Ukraine and Mariupol, Australia’s rate hike triggers bond market volatility

Boris Johnson has acknowledged the West’s “collective failure” in its response to Russia’s invasion of Crimea eight years ago and pledged to provide Ukraine with more “arms, finance and humanitarian aid”.

The British prime minister, in a virtual address to Ukraine’s parliament, condemned President Vladimir Putin’s “grotesque and illegal campaign” in Ukraine, adding that Britain will hold the Russian leader accountable for war crimes.

The conflict in Ukraine has “no moral ambiguities” or “grey areas,” Johnson added.

“It’s about Ukrainian democracy against Putin’s tyranny; it’s about freedom versus oppression; it’s right versus wrong; It’s about good versus evil,” he told parliamentarians in the Verkhovna Rada. Western leaders should not repeat the mistakes of 2014 when President Putin invaded Crimea, the prime minister added.

“The truth is that we were too slow to grasp what was really happening and we collectively failed to impose the sanctions that we should have imposed on Vladimir Putin,” he said.

Johnson praised the courage of the Ukrainians, saying they fought “with the energy and courage of lions”.

“Their children and grandchildren will say that Ukrainians have taught the world that the brute force of an attacker counts for nothing against the moral might of a people determined to be free,” he said. “I believe that Ukraine will win.”

Johnson unveiled a £300m military support package with arms for Ukraine including Brimstone anti-ship missiles and Stormer anti-aircraft systems. Melinda Simmons, British Ambassador to Ukraine, will return to Kyiv to reopen the British embassy, ​​he added.