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The British Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace has reaffirmed the United Kingdom’s support for Ukrainian independence, coinciding with a stern rebuke to Russian aggression published via the Ministry of Defence with the sale of anti-tank weaponry to the Ukrainian government.
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The British Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace on Tuesday reaffirmed the UK’s support for the Ukrainian independence and NATO, coinciding the publication of an stern article attacking Russian aggression with an anti-tank arms sale to Ukraine.
“NATO is, to its core, defensive in nature. At the heart of the organisation is Article 5 that obliges all members to come to the aid of a fellow member if it is under attack. No ifs and no buts. Mutual self-defence is NATO’s cornerstone,” Secretary Wallace wrote
“The Kremlin attempts to present NATO as a Western plot to encroach upon its territory, but in reality the growth in Alliance membership is the natural response of those states to its own malign activities and threats.”
The Secretary of Defence took further aim at President Putin’s multi-thousand-word essay published on Russia’s government website evoking “ethnonationalism at the heart of his ambitions” to justify Russian expansion across the former Soviet states.
In a glimmer of rapprochement between the Russian people and the West, the Secretary of Defence affirmed Russia and Britain’s historic ties stating that Britain is not in “dispute with Russia” but the aggressive nature of the Kremlin.
“Russia and the UK share a deep and often mutually beneficial history. Our allegiances helped to finally defeat Napoleon and later Hitler. Outside of conflict, across the centuries we shared technology, medicine and culture,” Secretary Wallace wrote.
“It provides the skewed and selective reasoning to justify, at best, the subjugation of Ukraine and at worse the forced unification of that sovereign country.”
Secretary Wallace’s article comes as the government confirmed that it would enter into a partnership with Ukraine for the sale of anti-tank weapons.
“We have taken the decision to supply Ukraine with light anti-armour defensive weapon systems,” he told the House of Commons.
However, Secretary Wallace has reassured the British public that the arms sale was in no way an act of aggression from Ukraine to Russia.
"They are not strategic weapons and pose no threat to Russia. They are to use in self-defence,” he continued.
The scale of Britain’s arms sale to Ukraine remains to be seen.
[Related: Overcoming quantity with quality: Can the British military withstand troop cuts?]
