British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal and urged UN unanimity to condemn his invasion of Ukraine.

His comments came in parliament, where MPs gave a standing ovation to Ukraine’s ambassador in attendance.

Johnson wore a UK-Ukraine flag pin, and many lawmakers wore clothing in Ukraine’s blue and yellow colours.

“What we have seen already from Vladimir Putin’s regime, in the use of the munitions that they have already been dropping on innocent civilians, in my view already fully qualifies as a war crime,” Johnson said.

UK ministers have been warning that Putin, his cronies and commanders could face prosecution at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which has already opened a probe into the invasion.

Ahead of a vote by the UN General Assembly in New York, Johnson added: “We call on every nation to join us in condemning Russia and demanding that Putin turns his tanks around.”

Johnson warned of further sanctions if the offensive continues, reprising a new three-word slogan: “Putin must fail”.

“With the heroism of Ukraine’s people… and the unity of the West, I’ve no doubt that he will fail and we will succeed in protecting Ukraine,” Johnson said.

The UK government warned Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his commanders in Ukraine could face prosecution for war crimes, comparing the “sickening” onslaught to the darkest days of the Yugoslav conflicts.

Visiting Poland earlier, Johnson had condemned Putin’s “barbaric, indiscriminate” tactics as the civilian death toll around the country rose.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv was “absolutely sickening” and reminiscent of massacres of civilians in Sarajevo in the 1990s, vowing that Western sanctions would remain “for as long as it takes”.

“It has that feel to me of an atrocity deliberately committed against a civilian centre,” he told journalists during a visit to a Nato base in Estonia.

He said Russia had underestimated the “passionate desire” of Ukraine’s people to defend themselves, as well as “the unity and resolve of the West and of the rest of the world”. “And we will keep up the economic pressure,” he said, after Britain on Tuesday joined the European Union and United States in sanctioning Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank.

Relaxes rules for Ukrainian refugees

The UK on Tuesday relaxed its immigration requirements for Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion, after criticism it was not doing enough to accommodate refugees.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said some 100,000 Ukrainians could enter the country for 12 months as a result of changes to criteria for close family members.

“There is no limit on the numbers eligible,” she told parliament, adding that those arriving “will be able to work and access public funds”.

Measures relaxed include language requirements and salary thresholds while also widening eligibility to grandparents, children over 18 and siblings of “any person settled in the UK”.

All applicants will still, however, have to pass security checks, she added.

London has faced calls to match an EU plan to allow Ukrainians with passports bearing biometric data to enter the bloc without a visa and stay for up to three years.

In response to the criticism, a junior minister in Patel’s department suggested on Twitter Ukrainians could still apply for seasonal worker visas designed for fruit pickers.

He later deleted his tweet.

Newspaper reports have also highlighted several cases where Ukrainians without visas have been prevented from using Eurostar train services to get from Paris to London. But Patel called the proposals a “very generous, expansive and unprecedented package” and ruled out demands for visa waivers, given that “Russian troops are seeking to infiltrate and merge with Ukrainian forces”. “We have a collective duty to keep the British people safe. And this approach is based on the strongest security advice,” she added.

Patel also outlined plans for Ukrainians who do not have family ties to come to the UK by being sponsored by individuals, charities, businesses and communities.

Leave to remain would also be granted for 12 months and would have no limit on numbers, she added.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson suggested on a visit to Poland earlier that “more than 200,000” Ukrainians could be eligible as a result of the UK scheme.

Tanya Kozlouska, 42, has lived in the UK for 22 years but her 75-year-old parents are still in Kyiv. She welcomed moves to make it easier for them to join her.

“I think it’s very good new because many civilians will be able to escape and find a place where they can stay without threat to their life,” she told AFP.

Kozlouska, a former auditor from Coventry, central England, said she is hoping her parents can reach her brother in the western city of Lviv, and from there to the Polish border.

Immigration is a controversial political issue in the UK, and tightening the country’s borders was central in the vote to leave the European Union in a 2016 referendum.

But Kozlouska said: “I think only those who have got immediate family will actually come, because most people, I think, will stay on the continent as it’s easier.

“I don’t think that people will just go to the UK just to stay here forever. I think only those with a family will come here.”

Assets of Belarusian defence chiefs freezed

The UK government announced sanctions against four senior defence figures in the Belarus regime of Alexander Lukashenko for supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

An assets freeze and travel ban was imposed on Victor Gulevich, Belarus’ chief of the general staff and first deputy minister of defence.

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