UK foreign secretary Liz Truss has urged the West to “double down” on its support for Ukraine in the war against Russia, warning that Ukrainian victory is a “strategic imperative”.
Speaking at London’s Mansion House on Wednesday, Truss said: “We will keep going further and faster to push Russia out of the whole of Ukraine.
"The war in Ukraine is our war - it is everyone's war… because Ukraine's victory is a strategic imperative for all of us.
“Heavy weapons, tanks, aeroplanes - digging deep into our inventories, ramping up production. We need to do all of this.
“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.”
Russia’s assault on Ukraine is now concentrated in the south and parts of the eastern Donbass region, with Moscow having declared that the “liberation of Donbass”, where the pro-Russian breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk are based, is its primary objective.
Much of this area was initially seized in a war that began back in 2014, during which Russian armed separatist groups declared breakaway “republics” in Donetsk and Luhansk, and Russian troops annexed the Crimean Peninsula.
Prior to Truss’ address, Russian president Vladimir Putin fired off a warning that any nation interfering in Russia’s assault on Ukraine would not go unchecked.
Putin told Russian parliamentarians: “We have all the tools that no one can boast of, and we will not be bragging about them, we will use them if necessary.”
Despite Putin’s threat, Truss called on other Western nations to do more to discourage Russian aggression in future, including increasing defence spending and providing arms to other countries that may be threatened by the Kremlin.
Truss said: “We must ensure that, alongside Ukraine, the Western Balkans and countries like Moldova and Georgia have the resilience and the capabilities to maintain their sovereignty and freedom.”
The foreign secretary also suggested that nations who choose to join NATO in future, highlighting Sweden and Finland as possibilities, should be integrated into the alliance “as soon as possible”.
In terms of economic action, Truss hinted that Russia could even be pushed out of Western markets by allied nations, saying that “access to the global economy must depend on playing by the rules.”
Image taken from Wikimedia Commons
