Vladimir Putin’s forces may struggle to occupy Ukraine after “bombing the s*** out of the infrastructure”, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said.
Mr Wallace has been one of the most outspoken public critics of Vladimir Putin over his assault on Ukraine, which is now entering its fifth month.
Earlier on Wednesday the Defence Secretary, who is now tipped as a possible successor to Boris Johnson as Tory leader and Prime Minister, said he believed Russia’s troop losses now stood at 25,000.
In further frank remarks about President Putin’s strategy and capabilities, Mr Wallace said Russia was still dangerous but he ridiculed the state of some of its “ancient” equipment and questioned how it could occupy territory it had gained.
Speaking to reporters at the Nato summit in Madrid on Wednesday afternoon, he said: “If it boils down to them having made a few kilometres advancement for the cost of 25,000 dead men, it’s a disaster for them and they haven’t even begun to occupy.
“They have bombed the s*** out of the infrastructure - how are they going to support their army? Usually it is not a good thing to destroy your water supply or any source of food. They haven’t even begun to occupy and all they have got to occupy are minefields and flattened buildings.”
On the state of Russia’s military equipment he added a lot of it was “old, ancient and dangerous”. He described an armoured train deployed by the Russians which he said was straight out of the classic World War Two movie Where Eagles Dare.
He said: “The ammunition they are using now is so old it’s blowing up in tubes. The reason some of the artillery is not accurate any more is it’s so old it’s not going the full distance.
“Have you seen their armoured train? Straight out of Where Eagles Dare? It’s this proper armoured train which trundles along I think to the Crimea, with anti aircraft guns on. That’s where they are at.”
Following US President Joe Biden’s commitment to boost its deployment of forces to Nato in Europe - including two more F-35 fighter jet squadrons in the UK - Mr Wallace also revealed further details of how Britain would be stepping up its allocations to the alliance.
This includes dedicating hundreds more troops to defending Nato’s borders in Estonia and a first star headquarters in the Baltic state. That comes on top of more than 1,600 troops already deployed in Estonia.
Britain will also dedicate one of its two aircraft carrier groups to Nato, he said, as well as boosting air forces in Cyrpus to help defend the Black Sea.
The moves come after Nato announced plans at this summit to increase the number of rapid reaction forces from 40,000 to 300,000 by 2023 to help defend the alliance’s eastern flank from Russian aggression.
