Fri 21 January 2022:
If Russia invades Ukraine, it risks being dragged into a “terrible quagmire,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss warned on Friday, raising the prospect of a long, bloody, and resource-draining conflict for Moscow.
Mean while the United Kingdom has sent a group of around 30 elite troops to Ukraine to train the country’s armed forces on anti-tank weapons transferred to Kiev by London amid concerns about the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis, Sky news reported.
According to the media, members of the Ranger Regiment, which is part of the newly created army’s Special Operations Brigade, arrived in Ukraine on military flights that also delivered about 2,000 anti-tank missile launchers to the country this week.
British Foreign Secretary issued a blunt and personal warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin that he is on the brink of making a major strategic blunder.
He “has not learned the lessons of history,” Truss told Sydney’s Lowy Institute, urging Putin to “desist and step back from Ukraine before he makes a massive strategic mistake.” “Invasion will only lead to a terrible quagmire and loss of life, as we know from the Soviet-Afghan war and conflict in Chechnya,” she said, referencing Moscow’s past conflicts that cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
On Monday, UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told Parliament that the UK had decided to supply Ukraine with a batch of light-armor defensive weapons systems, and that a “small number” of UK staff will travel to the country to provide initial training.
The next day, the UK minister for armed forces, James Heappey, said that “thousands” of such weapons had been airlifted to Ukraine.
“If Russia were to make any kind of incursion into Ukraine on any scale whatever I think that would be a disaster for not just for Russia, it would be a disaster for the world,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday
Johnson’s comments came during a visit to Taunton, southwest England.
“The UK stands squarely behind the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine,” Johnson reiterated his country’s support to Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin “must not be allowed to rewrite the rules” of international relations, Johnson told his Cabinet members earlier this week.
He said the UK is “doing everything possible to support the Ukrainian people in the face of a disinformation campaign from Russia aimed at undermining its sovereign neighbor.”
“The UK remains open to further talks with Russia,” Johnson added.
Moscow seized the Crimean peninsula in 2014 when a pro-Russian insurgency broke out in eastern Ukraine that has since claimed more than 13,000 lives.
Britain is among a handful of Western nations rushing lethal weapons — like anti-tank missiles — to Ukraine, dramatically increasing the prospect of Russian casualties.
Truss also said that a Russian invasion would bring “severe consequences” in the form of Western sanctions on “the financial sector and individuals”.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the transfer of weapons and instructors to Ukraine by the UK and Canada confirms Russia’s suspicions that the West has been preparing a provocation on the Ukrainian territory.
Western countries have recently accused Russia of a military build-up along the border with Ukraine, seeing it as a preparation for invasion. Moscow, however, denied the allegations, and said that it is does not intend to launch a military operation against any country. Russia also views the allegations as a pretext to deploy NATO military equipment near the country’s borders.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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