The Russian invasion of Ukraine has begun: UK Minister

London, Feb 22: British Health Secretary Sajid Javid on Tuesday said that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has already begun so Britain will impose sanctions on Putin-led government.

"You can conclude that the invasion of Ukraine has begun," British Health Secretary Sajid Javid told Sky News. "The Russians, President Putin, has decided to attack the sovereignty of Ukraine and its territorial integrity."

"We will be introducing sanctions as we said we always will," he was quoted saying by Rueters.

"I'm sure that we'll make those sanctions as targeted as possible to the people that are responsible for this flagrant violation of international law," Javid said.

On Monday evening, Johnson spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to outline his grave concern and warn that he believed an invasion was a real possibility in the "coming hours and days". During the phone call, Johnson promised to "explore sending further defensive support to Ukraine" at the request of the country's government, as well as detailing sanctions.

"The leaders agreed that the West needed to support Ukraine in the event of an invasion but should continue to pursue a diplomatic solution until the last possible second," Downing Street said.

"Regardless of President Putin's actions, the UK would be steadfast in its full support of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Prime Minister said," it added.

On Monday, Putin's actions were classed as an escalation of conflict in the region as he signed a decree recognising the independence of the self-declared people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.

Russian-backed rebels have been fighting Ukrainian forces in those regions since 2014 and the fears are that military forces could cross Ukraine's borders to occupy the rebel regions recognised by Russia. Putin claims the troops heading into the two rebel regions will be completing "peacekeeping" functions.