Kit Malthouse MP writes about the Ukraine war in an additional column for the Advertiser.

The shocking and illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia has rightly brought hundreds of concerned emails into my inbox. We are working very closely with our US, EU and G7 allies and partners to ratchet up the pressure on Putin’s regime, while providing Ukraine with economic, military and humanitarian aid.

We are locking Russia out of our financial markets and hitting their defence companies so they cannot import parts to maintain their equipment. We’re sanctioning businesses and oligarchs worth hundreds of billions of pounds, we’re moving fast to freeze the assets of all Russian banks, and we’re preventing the companies closest to Putin from raising finance in the UK.

This is a very fast-moving situation, and just in the last few days, we have targeted Russia’s wealthy elite and Putin’s inner circle including: Russia’s second largest bank, VTB; their biggest defence company, Rostec, which exports more than £10 billion in arms each year; and their leading supplier of air and sea missiles.

Meanwhile, we are providing military, economic and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. We’ve helped train their armed forces, we’ve provided them with anti-tank and other defensive weapons, and we’ve just announced a further £40 million in aid for supplies such as medicines, syringes and dressings.

And we’re making changes to our immigration system which will help hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians seeking sanctuary in the UK. Family members of British nationals, or those that have been given settled status, will be able to come here for 12 months. We have waived application fees, they will not have to go through the usual salary or language tests, and applications will undergo accelerated processing.

Ukrainians should know that we’ve got their backs during this very difficult time, even if there is a cost to us here in the UK. Putin and his regime have seriously underestimated the resolve of the West to defend democracy and freedom — these sanctions are just the beginning - they will feel all of our pain in the months and years ahead, until Ukraine once again breathes free.