War in Ukraine ‘could be Russia’s Vietnam’
The war in Ukraine could be Russia’s “Vietnam” if it turns from a “quagmire to a rout”, believes the British Defence Secretary.
Although fielding far more highly advanced weapons than Ukraine, the strain of operating beyond its borders and the potential to lose public support at home could see Vladimir Putin’s forces “collapse”.
Speaking in Finland, during a visit to British troops on exercise, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said it could result in a frozen conflict, like the Korean peninsula, or a military collapse such as the United States experienced in southeast Asia in 1973.
“Vietnam lasted 15 years and led to the overwhelming defeat, the rout, of the biggest military power in the world with highly advanced weapons over their enemy, because they had home advantage and public support. “This could be a Vietnam.
“Armies reach a breaking point. If the Russians collapse like they did north of Kyiv, it could very quickly turn from a quagmire to a rout and the whole thing could collapse back into Russia.”
The suggestion that Putin’s anticipated lightning military success is seriously bogged down was echoed by the leader of Belarus.
Alexander Lukashenko, one of Putin’s closest allies, said Russia’s war in Ukraine was dragging on and it was time to resume peace negotiations. He stopped short of criticising the Russian leader directly.
“I am not immersed in this problem enough to say whether it goes according to plan, like the Russians say, or like I feel it,” he said.
“I want to stress one more time, I feel like this operation has dragged on,” said Lukashenko.
He also bragged that only he could broker a peace deal and blamed
Ukraine for slowing down the talks.
“Thanks to yours truly, me, that is, negotiations between Ukraine and Russia have begun,” he said.
Belarus has offered only halfhearted support for the invasion and has not committed troops south of the border. Hinting at suggestions locals opposed to the war had taken action to slow the movement of Russian forces attempting to reposition to push into the Donbas region, Wallace noted Belarusian rail lines had developed the habit of “exploding”.
As fighting in the Donbas continued, a Kremlin official has said there will be no Victory Day parade on
May 9 in the Russian-controlled territories of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Speaking on a square in Mariupol, Sergei Kiriyenko, Putin’s deputy chief of staff, said it would be “impossible to hold an Immortal Regiment march or a Victory parade in Donetsk or Luhansk on May 9”.
However, “this time will come and will come soon,” he was quoted as saying by Russian state-owned newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
It would be the first time a May 9 parade has taken place in Luhansk and Donetsk since 2014, when those territories were seized by Russia.
Telegraph Group Ltd