In the face of increasing aggression from a resurgent Russia under President Vladimir Putin, Europe and the world need to unite to be able to deter further unacceptable behaviour by Moscow. Only recently it was confirmed that the missile which blew up a Malaysian airliner while flying over eastern Ukraine in 2014, resulting in the death of so many innocent lives on board, was fired by the Russian military.

Seven months ago there was the first chemical attack on Europe’s streets since the end of World War II. That attack in Salisbury, UK, on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, was an assassination plot by the Russians condemned by all democratic countries across the globe.

In a short interview aired by the BBC recently, Yulia Skripal said she believed that she and her father were the victims of a Russian assassination attempt involving the nerve agent Novichok. This was a cowardly attempt by the Kremlin to silence its opponents in such a horrendous manner, an attempt which must not be allowed to be repeated.

In 2006 there was also the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko, a formerRussian agent who was poisoned with the radioactive substance polonium-210 in a London hotel. Livinenko’s assassination is a stark reminder of how dangerous Russia has become.