NOTHING can be done by the United Nations to halt the "full-blown war" in Ukraine, according to Bridgwater and West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger

Mr Liddell-Grainger said: "Tragically what is being played out in Ukraine at the moment is now a full-blown war. A war which seems destined to continue until such time as both sides can be brought to the negotiating table and can agree on a truce – and a long-term settlement of their differences.

"But as we watch from our end of Western Europe a human disaster continues to unfold day upon day.

"Until a few weeks ago Ukrainians were enjoying precisely the kind of life we in this country take for granted: going to work, enjoying time with their families, going out to restaurants and bars.

"That peaceable existence has been brutally shattered. It is hard to imagine ourselves in a situation where homes, property, and possessions can be destroyed in an instant and families left destitute as bombs and shells continue to explode all around them– but that is now a daily experience for thousands in Ukraine.

"There is, however, nothing the UN can or should be doing to try to end the conflict: any intervention only risks stoking the flames and unleashing even more appalling devastation.

"What the conflict shows clearly is how under Putin Russia has regressed to become a hostile, belligerent state where waging war over territories can, unbelievably, still take precedence over the urgent need to work in co-operation with other countries to solve the huge challenges to our very existence now being posed by climate change.

"I refuse to believe that the majority of the Russian people have signed up to such warmongering which is why their leaders are taking rapid steps to repress dissent and strengthen the grip of the state-run media which saturate the country so effectively with propaganda.

"All we can do at the moment is to support in whatever way possible the persecuted Ukrainians, either by sending money via aid agencies or by welcoming refugees into our homes – and I am grateful to the many people who have got in touch with me offering to do whatever they can to reduce the utterly shocking toll of human misery they see unfolding each day on their television screens."