Ukraine’s top security official dismisses Ben Wallace’s criticisms of Kyiv

‘I know for sure this isn’t his actual position,’ Danilov said, after Wallace questioned Kyiv’s gratitude and said its weapons requests treated western allies ‘like Amazon’. Photograph: Alina Smutko/Reuters

Ukraine’s top security official has dismissed criticism of Kyiv from British defence secretary Ben Wallace, suggesting Wallace misspoke due to a surfeit of emotion.

“I wouldn’t pay too much attention to what he said,” Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s security council, told the Guardian in Kyiv on Thursday. “Everyone can say something when they are emotional and then regret it … I know for sure this isn’t his actual position.”