Ordinary Russians are now experiencing the day-to-day consequences of the Ukraine invasion as McDonald’s and Starbucks shut their shops, Liz Truss has said.
Speaking in Washington, the foreign secretary hailed the “huge action from the private sector” – which, unlike his censorship of the media, Vladimir Putin is unable to hide from his citizens.
“We’ve seen huge action from the private sector, whether it’s McDonald’s or other companies,” the foreign secretary told a press conference.
“One of the issues in Russia is, of course, the lack of free media – the fact that the Russian people aren’t being told the truth.
“They will be seeing now – by the fact that shops are closing, they’re not able to get the goods that they were able to get – exactly the implications that Putin’s aggression in Ukraine is having for Russia.”
The comments came as Ms Truss denied ever giving backing to ordinary Britons going to fight for Ukraine’s cause, despite saying it live on TV last month.
“I have been very clear that the travel advice from the United Kingdom is not to go to Ukraine,” she claimed, adding: “What I said the other week was expressing support for the Ukrainian cause.”
Ms Truss was speaking alongside Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, both facing renewed questions about Nato’s refusal to impose a no fly zone over Ukraine.
In a fresh plea, following the bombing of a maternity hospital in the besieged port city of Mariupol, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted: “How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror?”
But Mr Blinken said: “Our goal is to end the war, not to expand it, including potentially expanding it to Nato territory.
“Otherwise, it is going to turn even deadlier, involve more people and I think potentially even make things harder to resolve in Ukraine itself.”
After Ms Truss had repeated the UK’s opposition to the no fly zone, Mr Blinken added: “As the foreign secretary said, we have exactly the same perspective on that.”
Ms Truss said the invasion was proof that “since the end of the Cold War we took our eye off the ball”, arguing “we must never let down our guard again”.
“We’re determined to keep strengthening Nato, and urge all allies to increase their investment,” she said.
“We must accelerate Nato’s modernisation and deepen our cooperation on tech and cyber. We will end strategic dependence on authoritarian regimes for our energy and for other vital resources.”
The foreign secretary also said: “The reality is, across the West, we haven’t spent enough on defence for a number of years and we’ve seen a build-up of military capability from Russia in terms of both technology and numbers.”
She welcomed Germany’s increasing defence spending, but – on whether the UK will follow suit – added: “I’m not going to pre-empt any future discussions between the chancellor and the defence secretary.”
