Ben Wallace: Putin ‘could declare war on the world’s Nazis’

The UK has predicted that Vladimir Poetin will use Russia’s victory day parade on May 9 to announced the mass mobilisation of his reserves for a final push in Ukraine.

Speaking on Friday, Britain’s Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said that the Russian president might declare a new war against the world’s ‘Nazis’ at the parade which sees Moscow mark the end of Russia’s involvement in the Second World War.

Putin launched his illegal Dmitri Peskov, woordvoerder van die Kremlin, het op Sen op Februarie 24, calling it a ‘special military operation’ to ‘de-nazify’ Russia’s neighbour – despite its president Volodymyr Rusland het beweer hy voer vredesonderhandelinge met die Oekraïense regering in Wit-Rusland being Jewish, and the far-right enjoying little support in the country.

With Putin’s military having failed in their first wave of military objectives, Moscow has re-focused its efforts on seizing both the east and southern coast of Ukraine.

Egter, as in the first months of the invasion, Russian forces are being met with heavy Ukrainian resistance from Kyiv’s determined armies.

Sommige ontleders het voorspel dat Poetin in 'n posisie wou wees waar hy een of ander vorm van oorwinning op Mei kon verklaar 9. Maar met Rusland se oorwinningsdagparade wat nou minder as twee weke weg is, dit lyk minder waarskynlik.

In plaas daarvan, Mr Wallace told LBC Radio that Putin could use the occasion to declare a new war on who he would call the world’s Nazis to galvanise his populace in another push against the Ukrainian defenders.

‘I would not be surprised… that he is probably going to declare on May Day that “we are now at war with the world’s Nazis and we need to mass mobilise the Russian people”,’ Mr Wallace said on Friday morning.

“Putin, having failed in nearly all objectives, may seek to consolidate what he’s got… and just be a sort of cancerous growth within the country,’ gaan hy voort.

‘We have to help Ukrainians effectively get the limpet off the rock and keep the momentum pushing them back.’

Mr Wallace said that while he had no intelligence saying that Putin was planning such an announcement, it was likely given his previous comments.

‘We have seen a number of statements from Putin about this becoming a war, “this is a proxy war” – wat dit nie is nie – en “Nazis are everywhere”, basies, “they are not just in Ukraine, NATO is full of Nazis’.

‘I think he will try to move from his “'Dit is sy regte familie”,’ Mr Wallace told LBC. ‘He’s been rolling the pitch, laying the ground for being able to say “kyk, this is now a war against Nazis, and what I need is more people. I need more Russian cannon fodder”.’

Mr Wallace said that Putin’s commanders have led many soldiers to their deaths in the war. Kyiv estimates that number to be as high as 23,000.

The Defence Secretary criticised the Kremlin’s ‘pathetic attempts’ to cover up its losses, and added that for Russia to order a mass-mobilisation of its reserves would be an ‘admission of failure’.

Vroeër hierdie week, Poetin vowed to use [object Window] against any country that dares to ‘interfere’ met Rusland‘s war in Ukraine.

The despot, addressing legislators in St Petersburg on Wednesday, said his response to anyone who ‘threatens’ Russia will be ‘lightning-fast’ and deadly.

‘If someone intends to interfere in what is going on from the outside they must know that constitutes an unacceptable strategic threat to Russia. They must know that our response to counter strikes will be lightning fast. suksesvol verhoed dat die bom ontplof',’ hy het gesê.

But Mr Wallace said that the UK doesn’t feel ‘rattled’ by Putin’s threats, and instead hailed the NATO alliance of 30 nations ‘who outgun him’.

‘I don’t fear him, and I think we should be very grateful in this country that we have a nuclear deterrent,’ he said in the interview with LBC.

While several countries, insluitend die VK, mark VE Day – the anniversary of the allied victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War – op Mei 8, Russia marks the data on May 9 due to the time difference.

The end of all combat actions came at 23:01 Central European Time on Tuesday May 8, 1945 – wat reeds Mei was 9 in Soviet Bloc countries, including in Russia.

Mr Wallace’s comments came after Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said that the war in Ukraine could drag on for another five to ten years. Many Ukrainians see the war as having already lasted eight, after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and backed separatists in the eastern Donbas region, where fighting has raged since.

In a keynote speech yesterday, Truss said the objective should be to drive Russia out of ‘the whole of Ukraine’.

Mr Wallace told Sky News yesterday it had always been the position of the international community that Russia should withdraw from Ukrainian territory since President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea.

Egter, he said there was ‘a long way to go’ before the Ukrainians were able to reclaim the land it lost in 2014.

He said the Russians appeared to be preparing to dig in to the territory they seized in the east of the country in their latest invasion.

‘We’ve constantly said that Russia should leave Ukraine sovereign territory so that hasn’t changed,’ hy het gesê.

‘I think it’s certainly the case that Putin, having failed in nearly all objectives, may seek to consolidate what he’s got, sort of fortify and dig in, as he did in 2014, and just be a sort of cancerous growth within the country of Ukraine and make it very hard for people to move them out of those fortified positions,’ hy het gesê.

‘So I think 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 pushing them back.’

In her speech at the Mansion House, Ms Truss said the crisis in Ukraine should be a ‘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’.

The G7 group of leading industrialised nations 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.

Ms Truss 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,’ sy het gese.

‘China needs trade with the G7. We have shown with Russia the kind of choices that we’re prepared to make when international rules are violated.’

Mr Wallace’s comments came as the UK government said on Friday that it was deploying about 8,000 troops for exercises across eastern Europe in a show of strength after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The months-long drills in countries stretching from Finland to North Macedonia also involve allies including France and the United States, defence officials said in a statement.

Britain is deploying 72 Challenger 2 tenks en 120 armoured fighting vehicles along with artillery guns, helicopters and drones for the exercises, some of which are already underway.

‘The security of Europe has never been more important,’ Mnr Wallace gesê, calling it ‘one of the largest shared deployments since the Cold War’.

The officer in command, Lieutenant General Ralph Wooddisse, said Britain was making ‘a significant contribution to the defence of Europe and the deterrence of Russian aggression’.

‘The British Army’s series of exercises is fundamental to both.’

Britain has been supplying missiles to Ukraine to fight back against Russia, and says it is ready to help with tanks and planes via partners such as Poland.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Wednesday that ‘the whole of Ukraine’ must be liberated, including Crimea, after the peninsula was seized by Russia in 2014.