Ukrainian servicemen install a machine gun on a tank during repair works in the Donetsk region
(Picture: AP)Vladimir Putin could seek to consolidate Russia’s territorial gains in Ukraine and dig in like a “cancerous growth”, the UK’s Defence Secretary has warned.
Mr Putin has seen his lightning invasion plan, to seize Kyiv within days, fail and now his troops are only making slow progress in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine where they are being redeployed, according to western officials.
Mr Wallace told Sky News: “It’s certainly the case that Putin having failed in nearly all of his objectives, may seek to consolidate what he has got, fortify and dig in as he did in 2014, and just be a cancerous growth in the country of Ukraine and make it very hard to move them out of those fortified positions.
“It’s really about if we want this to not happen we have to help Ukrainians effectively get the limpet off the rock and keep the momentum in pushing them back.”
Mr Wallace said Russian troops must “first and foremost” be driven out of parts of Ukraine they have recently invaded but did not rule out that a further aim should be retaking Crimea.
He stressed that the international community believes Russia should leave Crimea which it annexed in 2014.
“We are supporting Ukraine’s sovereign integrity...that of course includes Crimea and Donetsk,” he told Sky News.
“But first and foremost let’s get Russia out of where they are now in its invasion plans and help Ukraine resolve, do you remember the Minsk agreement which Russia has basically ripped up, was all about trying to resolve those two occupied territories (Donetsk and Luhansk).
“But the key thing here is to continue to support Ukraine’s sovereign integrity and their ablity to defend themselves.”
The Defence Secretary’s comments came after Liz Truss said in a keynote speech on Wednesday night that Russia should be “pushed out of the whole of Ukraine”.
The Foreign Secretary also stressed that the crisis in Ukraine must be the catalyst for an overhaul to the West’s approach to international security.
She said the UK needed to strengthen its military while building alliances with free nations around the world, using their economic power to deter aggressors who “do not play by the rules”.
She added that the G7 group of leading industrialised nations, the US, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Canada, should act as an “economic Nato” defending collective prosperity, while the Western military alliance must be prepared to open its doors to countries such as Finland and Sweden.
Speaking at the Mansion House in the City of London, Ms Truss said the international architecture intended to guarantee peace and prosperity had failed Ukraine in the face of an attack by a “desperate rogue operator”, in the shape of Mr Putin, with no interest in international norms.
“Russia is able to block any effective action in the UN Security Council. Putin sees his veto as a green light to barbarism,” she said.
In the short term, she said Western allies must “double down” on support for the government in Kyiv, providing the heavy weaponry it needs “to push Russia out of the whole of Ukraine”.
At the same time, she said the events of the past months must be “a catalyst for wider change”.
“Now we need a new approach, one that melds hard security and economic security, one that builds stronger global alliances and where free nations are more assertive and self-confident, one that recognises geopolitics is back,” she said.
At home, she said that should mean an increase in defence spending with the Nato minimum of two per cent of national income a “floor not a ceiling”.
At the same time, the UK needed to build a series of strong partnerships with like-minded countries around the world in a “network of liberty”.
In Europe, Finland and Sweden should, if they choose to join Nato, be integrated into the alliance “as soon as possible”, while states like Moldova and Georgia - which are not Nato members - should have the means to maintain their sovereignty and freedom.
Nato, which has traditionally been focused on the defence of Europe, needed to adopt a “global outlook”, working with allies like Japan and Australia to ensure the Pacific is protected and democracies like Taiwan are able to defend themselves.
Ms Truss said the West had to be prepared to stand up to “aggressors” who try to exploit their economic power as a “tool of foreign policy” to exert control and to coerce others.
“Access to the global economy must depend on playing by the rules. There can be no more free passes,” she said.
“We are showing this with the Russia-Ukraine conflict - Russia’s pass has been rescinded.
“The G7 should act as an economic Nato, collectively defending our prosperity. If the economy of a partner is being targeted by an aggressive regime we should act to support them. All for one and one for all.”
Ms Truss also singled out China, which has refused to condemn the invasion of Ukraine, while increasing imports from Russia and commenting on “who should or shouldn’t be a Nato member”.
“China is not impervious. They will not continue to rise if they do not play by the rules,” she said.
“China needs trade with the G7. We represent around half of the global economy. And we have choices.
“We have shown with Russia the kind of choices that we’re prepared to make when international rules are violated.”
