Keep punishing Vladimir Putin to end horror of Ukraine war, says Liz Truss

The horror of Mr Putin’s war continued on the 21st day of the invasion
Ukrainian servicemen drive off in a Russian tank they captured after fighting with Russian troops, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, outside Brovary
Ukrainian servicemen drive off in a Russian tank they captured after fighting with Russian troops
REUTERS

Vladimir Putin will be forced to end his “barbaric” invasion if the West chokes off funding for his war machine and gives the Ukrainian resistance support, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Wednesday.

The Cabinet minister laid out the strategy to “end this war” and stop the Russian president’s massacre of civilians in Ukraine as latest reports said his troops were suffering heavy losses, including possibly the death of another general.

Ms Truss said unprecedented sanctions from the West were having a “debilitating effect on the Russian economy”. 

Boris Johnson was in the Gulf on Wednesday as part of moves to wean Europe off its dependence on Russian gas and oil.

Striking a note of optimism, even if only slight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said peace talks with Russia had taken a “realistic turn”.

But the horror of Mr Putin’s war continued on the 21st day of the invasion, with another block of flats in the capital Kyiv, which is under curfew, hit by Russian shelling, according to the Ukrainian authorities.

Russian soldiers were reported to be keeping 400 people, including patients and medical staff, “like hostages” inside a hospital in the besieged city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine.

Fierce fighting was also taking place in the Luhansk eastern region and Russian maritime forces appeared to be preparing for a landing near Odesa.

Thousands of civilians are believed to have died so far in the conflict.

Ms Truss warned the signs of progress in the talks could be Mr Putin “playing a smoke-and-mirrors game” to buy time as his invasion has stalled and he has resorted to bombarding Kyiv and other cities.

But she was clear on how the West was seeking to tighten the vice on the Putin regime as his military plan floundered.

“That is what will end this war, a combination of cutting off the funding to Putin’s war machine and providing Ukrainians with that direct support that they need to defend their own country,” she told Times Radio.

A Whitehall source added: “The more we strengthen Ukraine and punish Putin, the more it strengthens the hand of Zelensky in negotiations.”

As peace talks were due to restart, Russia claimed that some parts of a possible peace deal with Ukraine were close to being agreed

“Neutral status is now being seriously discussed along, of course, with security guarantees,” Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov claimed on RBC news.

He cautioned the negotiations were not easy but that there was “some hope of reaching a compromise”.

However, Western leaders are not taking the Kremlin at its word, particularly after the repeated denials that an invasion was being planned.

Ms Truss told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I am sceptical about the peace talks while Putin is still waging war in Ukraine.

“The first precursor to any successful peace talks has to be a ceasefire and Putin withdrawing his troops from Ukraine. It is very, very difficult for the Ukrainians to negotiate with a gun against their heads.”

Mr Zelensky, who will address the US Congress by video link on Wednesday, has publicly accepted that Ukraine is not about to join Nato and this appears to have opened a path towards some form of peace agreement.

“We need a peaceful, free, independent Ukraine, neutral — not a member of military blocs, not a member of Nato,” said Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky.

The military situation on the ground will also dictate the pace of talks, and the Russian invasion appeared to be making little progress, with spring further bogging down tanks and other vehicles in deep mud.

British military intelligence chiefs said Mr Putin’s troops had suffered “heavy losses”, with thousands killed, which was likely to be limiting their ability to launch offensive operations.

Ms Truss said Britain would continue to supply Ukrainian forces with lethal, defensive military equipment, including anti-tank weapons and super-fast Starstreak missiles.

The US and other Nato members on Wednesday said they would keep helping Ukraine fight off Russia’s invasion, while also adapting the alliance’s own security to the “new reality” triggered by the war.

“We remain united in our support of Ukraine,” US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said as he arrived at an emergency meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels.

After arriving in Abu Dhabi, Boris Johnson said: “I talked to Volodymyr again yesterday and of course I understand what he is saying about Nato and the reality of the position. And everybody has always said — and we’ve made it clear to Putin — that there is no way Ukraine is going to join Nato any time soon.”

He was later due to hold talks in Saudi Arabia with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman which will make him only the second major Western leader to visit the kingdom since journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s 2018 killing by Saudi government agents in Istanbul.

His visit comes four days after Saudi Arabia executed 81 men, the most in a single day for decades, for offences ranging from joining militant groups to holding “deviant beliefs”.

Asked about criticism of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, Mr Johnson said: “I’ve raised all those issues many, many times over the past ... and I’ll raise them all again today.” Hopes of getting Gulf nations to swiftly boost oil production appeared to have fallen.

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