Johnson is due to speak at 5pm, but in a lunchtime address to the nation, he said action had to be taken by against Russia for attacking “a friendly country without any provocation and without any credible excuses”.
He said a “vast invasion” was under way by “a dictator”, adding: “This is not some faraway country of which we know little… we cannot and will not just look away.”
Johnson promised, together with allies, “to unleash a massive package of economic sanctions designed, in time, to hobble the Russian economy”. He also promised to end dependency on Russian oil and gas.
“This hideous and barbaric venture by Vladimir Putin must end in failure,” he said.
