Truss calls for allies to back Ukraine as its fate ‘remains in the balance’
THE West must prepare for the “long haul” to ensure Russia’s defeat in Ukraine, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said as she called for allies to increase defence spending and supply tanks and warplanes to Kyiv.
In a major speech at the Mansion House in London, Ms Truss argued that Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine shows the need for a shakeup of the international structures which failed to prevent Russia’s actions.
She said Western allies need to impose even tougher economic sanctions to increase Russia’s isolation, including cutting off oil and gas imports “once and for all”.
“There must be nowhere for Putin to go to fund this appalling war,” she said.
In a call to Western allies, she said: “We cannot be complacent – the fate of Ukraine remains in the balance. And let’s be clear – if Putin succeeds there will be untold further misery across Europe and terrible consequences across the globe. We would never feel safe again. So we must be prepared for the long haul and double down on our support for Ukraine.
“Heavy weapons, tanks, aeroplanes – digging deep into our inventories, ramping up production. We need to do all of this.”
Mr Putin’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has warned that weapons supplied by Western countries “will be a legitimate target” and Nato has effectively “entered into a war with Russia through proxies”.
The UK was one of just eight Nato members to meet the alliance’s goal of spending at least 2% of gross domestic product – a measure of the size of the economy – on defence in 2021.
Ms Truss said that there has been a “generation of under-investment” in the West and the 2% target should be “a floor, not a ceiling”.
Ms Truss said the Russian invasion shows “the architecture that was designed to guarantee peace and prosperity has failed Ukraine”.
Russia’s position as a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council has limited that body’s ability to censure the Putin regime.
Ms Truss set out a new approach which recognises “the return of geopolitics”.
The UK and its allies must “reboot, recast and remodel our approach to deterring aggressors” and the war in Ukraine “has to be a catalyst for wider change”, she said. “Our new approach will be based on three areas: military strength, economic security and deeper global alliances.”
An ally of the Cabinet minister said her speech was in recognition of the fact that the West has been “asleep at the wheel since the Cold War”.
Her speech came after a British defence minister backed Ukrainian strikes on military targets behind Russian lines, even if the weapons used have been supplied by the UK.
Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said there is “every chance” that Moscow’s forces will be repelled with the support being supplied to Kyiv by allies.
But he dismissed Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s claims that Western allies are “pouring oil on the fire” by providing Ukraine with firepower.
Mr Heappey said “of course” the UK backs reported strikes on fuel depots in Russia.
He told Times Radio it is “completely legitimate for Ukraine to be targeting in Russia’s depth in order to disrupt the logistics that if they weren’t disrupted would directly contribute to death and carnage on Ukrainian soil”.
And the minister said it is “not necessarily a problem” if British-donated weapons are used to hit sites on Russian soil after accepting that weapons now being supplied by allies to Ukraine have the range to be used over borders.
“There are lots of countries around the world that operate kit that they have imported from other countries; when those bits of kit are used we tend not to blame the country that manufactured it, you blame the country that fired it,” he added.
The comments mark a further strengthening of the UK’s position, as allies shift from caution against
antagonising President Vladimir Putin to supplying more and more lethal aid.
Russian foreign minister Mr Lavrov has warned that the threat of nuclear conflict “should not be under-estimated”.
He accused Nato forces of “pouring oil on the fire” by providing weapons, as he warned against provoking “World War Three”.
But Mr Heappey told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the chances of nuclear warfare are “vanishingly small”.
He told Mr Lavrov to “reflect” on the reason there is a war in Ukraine being that Russia invaded, telling Sky News: “All of this noise from Moscow about somehow their attack on Ukraine being a response to Nato aggression is just utter, utter nonsense.”
Mr Heappey has said there is “every chance” that the Ukrainians will see off the Russians in the invasion, arguing that Moscow’s victory in the east of Ukraine is not inevitable.
“We’ll see a conflict between two forces that are much more evenly balanced, where the Ukrainians have the advantage of defensive positions that have been dug in and prepared over the last eight years, and that’s going to make it an extraordinarily difficult nut for the Russians to crack,” he told Sky.
“And with all the support that the Ukrainians are getting from around the world, there’s every chance the Ukrainians can see them off.”
Britain is sending a small number of Stormer armoured vehicles fitted with launchers for anti-aircraft missiles in the latest shipment to repel the Russians.
Germany is also expected to approve the delivery of Gepard antiaircraft systems to Ukraine in a significant increase of support from Berlin.
In the UK, the Ministry of Defence said it has seen reports that the city of Kreminna, in the eastern region of Luhansk, has fallen to the Russians.
Amid “heavy fighting” in Izium and forces trying to advance to the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the intelligence update said Moscow’s troops are “likely attempting to encircle heavily fortified” positions.