Russia "started" the conflict in Ukraine and can end it "straight away”, Sir Keir Starmer has said after Vladimir Putin suggested Moscow would regard Western missiles being fired into Russia as a serious escalation of the war. The PM is in Washington for talks with US President Joe Biden on Friday, as allies of Kyiv discuss giving Ukraine permission to fire their missiles at targets inside Russia. Putin told Russian state television that this would “mean nothing other than the direct participation of Nato countries - the US and European countries - in the war in Ukraine.