A Kent MP slammed the UK's sanctions on Russia as "weak" and called to "punish those who seek for the first time since 1939 to change the borders of Europe".

Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, branded the attack on Ukraine a "vile act of war and aggression that can't be tolerated".

His comments came as Ukraine’s president declared martial law, while Russia’s military said it had targeted Ukrainian air bases and other military assets and had not targeted populated areas.

Russian president Vladimir Putin announced the action during a televised address early this morning, saying the move was a response to threats from Ukraine.

He said Russia does not have a goal to occupy Ukraine, but the responsibility for bloodshed lies with the Ukrainian “regime”.

He also warned other countries that any attempt to interfere with the Russian action would lead to “consequences they have never seen”.

Tonbridge and Malling MP Mr Tugendhat told how the UK must be clear whose side it is on.

“Britain needs to stand for democracies against tyrannies and those who are being oppressed not those who are doing the oppressing," he said on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning.

“In this case that means not only financial sanctions but on many other things like aeroplane parts, complex engineering items that aren’t made in other places.

“We need to be absolutely clear the decisions we take will defend the integrity of European nation states and punish those who seek for the first time since 1939 to change the borders of Europe by force.

“This is a vile act of war and aggression that can’t be tolerated by any party.”

He said the UK should "go in hard and early" with sanctions to "make it extremely clear what you're going to do".

Sanctions have been imposed by the British government on three Russian oligarchs and five banks.

“The problem is [Dmitry] Medvedev, the former president of Russia, said only the other day, ‘We know how sanctions work, they impose them, we ignore them and they come crawling back for the business anyway’," he added.

“Weak sanctions like the ones we introduced on Monday just encourage others to believe we are weak because we’re clearly not willing to do anything serious.

"What that did on Monday didn’t deter, it encouraged because it made clear we aren’t willing to do anything serious.

"If we are going to do sanctions, we need to do them extremely hard and extremely early.

"One of the reasons I was given for leaving the European Union was we could do independent sanctions - that’s what I was told by the then foreign secretary in 2018 - well let’s see them."

Mr Putin accused the US and its allies of ignoring Russia’s demand to prevent Ukraine from joining Nato and offer Moscow security guarantees.

He said the Russian military operation aims to ensure a “demilitarisation” of Ukraine, adding that all Ukrainian servicemen who lay down arms will be able to safely leave the zone of combat.

Explosions could be heard in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv shortly after Mr Putin’s address, while explosions were also reported in the cities of Odesa and Kharkiv.

Ukraine’s border guard agency said the Russian military attacked the country from neighbouring Belarus.

The agency said that the Russian troops unleashed an artillery barrage as part of an attack backed by Belarus. They said the Ukrainian border guards were firing back, adding that there was no immediate report of casualties.

The UK Foreign Office has said people should not attempt to cross from Russia into Ukraine. The official advice was updated on Thursday to say: “There are multiple reports of widespread military activity in Ukraine. You should not attempt to cross into Ukraine from Russia.”

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace described Russia’s actions as “naked aggression against a democratic country” and said no one had been fooled by the Kremlin’s “false flags and fake narratives”.

“The Russian Federation has today further violated Ukrainian Sovereignty,” he said.

“Despite the efforts of the international communities, Russia has chosen conflict. No one has been fooled by the Kremlin’s false flags and fake narratives.

“This is naked aggression against a democratic country which had dared to express a different aspiration than being a supine neighbour to Russia. No one should forget this day. Putin thinks this land grab is about securing his legacy – it will be, but not the one that he wishes.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby used the Thought of The Day feature on Radio 4 to think of those who will suffer today.

He said: To wake up to the news of war is terrible - to wake up to its reality is orders of magnitude worse.

"Shakespeare refers to war as 'chaos' - the loosing of 'the dogs of war' - and calls for one of his characters to cry out the warning about what it means.

"Those in the Ukraine will be thinking of their relatives on the frontlines or their friends on the frontlines. We are thinking 'where is it going to go next?'

"Politicians are thinking 'what do we do?' In all the thinking, in all the responses, there is the great uncertainty which is the worst enemy of good decisions.

"Uncertainty leads to fear, fear leads to overreaction. How do we react well? How do politicians in the cloud of war, not really knowing what's going on but knowing they have no opportunity to wait, how do they make up their minds?

"They will rightly call for all of us all for themselves to have resolution, courage, determination, a willingness to sacrifice whatever is necessary in order to ensure that peace may come and justice may be done.

"Peace and justice. they often seem to contrast, and yet they are opposite sides of the same coin.

"We seek peace and justice, and that must end with those involved in conflict not having solutions imposed on them, but finding for themselves the way forward to reconciliation and peace.

"Right at the end of his life Jesus Christ, on the eve of his crucifiction, spoke to his disciples and he said something very memorable: 'In the world you will have trouble, but do not be afraid. I have overcome the world.'

"For me and for many of faith, the great certainty in the world - the only certainty - is that we know that God does not change. Let us find our resolution, our peace, our certainty, not by screwing up our courage but in the knowledge of the eternal arms that hold us.

"May God be with those who suffer today."