President Vladimir Putin is preparing to use Victory Day celebrations on May 9 to tell the Russian people he is conducting a war — not a special military operation — in Ukraine, Britain’s defence minister has said.
Ben Wallace said the Russian leader will have no choice but to come clean about the reality on the ground if he needs more conscripts to be pushed to join the fight under a formal declaration of hostilities between the two nations.
As the Russian invasion of Ukraine entered its 10th week on Thursday, Mr Putin has yet to call it a war, instead describing it as a “special military operation” aimed at achieving the “denazification” of the former Soviet nation.
Victory Day, which commemorates the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945, is celebrated in Russia with a huge military parade in Moscow’s Red Square, attended by Mr Putin and his officials.
“I actually think what he’s trying to do is lay the groundwork for an announcement on their May Day Second World War celebration to cover his failure, which if you remember it is a special operation how they describe it,” Mr Wallace told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“He’s going to have to admit if he wants to mobilise more of the Russian people that it is a war.
“Now he can’t admit that by saying ‘I got it wrong’. He’s going to have to admit it by trying to blame everybody else, and I think that is rolling the pitch for.”
Mr Wallace said people “should not be too alarmed” by Mr Putin’s recent comments in which he warned against “outside intervention” in Ukraine and a “lightning fast” response to any nation that interferes in the war.
He stressed that while the UK takes Mr Putin “incredibly seriously”, the government would not be intimidated by the Russian leader.
Asked what direction he believes the war is heading in, the defence minister said brutality remains the only card Mr Putin has to play in the battle. He said Mr Putin had made “strategic blunders” by invading his neighbouring country, pointing to Finland and Sweden’s recent clamour to join Nato.
Mr Putin has been wrong on several calculations, he said, by believing Ukrainians would welcome his forces, that his troops were invincible, and that the international community would not unite against Moscow.
“But he’s got one calculation left which it is why in this country both left and right, the SNP, the Labour party, are united with us. One of his calculations is going to be he might win through brutality,” Mr Wallace added.
He warned the Kremlin’s “battle-winning component” could be the mass killing of civilians and destruction of infrastructure. “And if he is successful in that, then what does that message say to all those other nations around the world [about] how to win a battle?”
Mr Wallace reinforced Foreign Secretary Liz Truss’s view that Russian forces must be pushed out of “the whole of Ukraine”, saying Britain would support Ukrainians in “both diplomatic efforts or military efforts”.
Russia has suffered “embarrassing losses” to its navy, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence update on Thursday. Around 20 Russian Navy vessels, including submarines, are stationed in the Black Sea operational zone, the MoD said.
“The Bosporus Strait remains closed to all non-Turkish warships, rendering Russia unable to replace its lost cruiser Moskva in the Black Sea.
“Despite the embarrassing losses of the landing ship Saratov and cruiser Moskva, Russia’s Black Sea Fleet retains the ability to strike Ukrainian and coastal targets.”
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Burnt-out wreckage of a tank in Kolychivka village, Chernihiv region, northern Ukraine. EPA -
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Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses a meeting of MPs in St Petersburg. EPA -
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An officer from National Guard of Ukraine surveys weapons left behind by Russian troops in Chernobyl. AFP -
Mr Putin attends a meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in Moscow. Reuters -
Members of a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency carry equipment as they arrive at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in Chernobyl, Ukraine. AP -
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Ukrainian refugees Julia, second left, 32, and Miroslava, left, 11, walk away with relatives who received them after they crossed into Poland from Ukraine at the Dorohusk border. AFP -
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov meets Mr Guterres in Moscow. AFP -
US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Mark Milley, left, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, second left, and Ukrainian Minister of Defence Oleksii Reznikov, right, attend the Ukraine Security Consultative Group meeting at Ramstein airbase in Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany. Getty Images -
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People watch as a residential building burns after Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AP -
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin. Reuters -
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the Orthodox Easter service at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. EPA -
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This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows damage at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, Ukraine. AP -
A Ukrainian man rides in front of a destroyed building in Kharkiv which had been shelled by the Russians. EPA -
A Ukrainian Territorial Defence fighter in a shelter with an Easter Cake near Kharkiv. Ukrainians mark Orthodox Easter today. EPA -
Residents receive Easter cakes and apples handed out by pro-Russian troops on Easter Day at the Svyato-Troitsky Church in the southern port city of Mariupol. Reuters -
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A military chaplain blesses Ukrainian soldiers on the occasion of Orthodox Easter not far from the city of Izyum in Kharkiv. EPA -
An internally displaced man walks with dogs in the Palace of Culture, which was damaged by shelling in Rubizhne, eastern Ukraine. AFP -
Tulips grow next to a building destroyed by shelling in Rubizhne. AFP -
Internally displaced people wait to receive food inside a factory that has been turned into a shelter, in Severodonetsk. AFP -
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Ambulance workers move an injured Ukrainian serviceman to a hospital in Donetsk. AP -
A woman sits inside a subway station that has been turned into a shelter, on the outskirts of second largest Ukrainian city, Kharkiv. AFP -
Residents shelter in a subway station in Kharkiv. AFP -
Anastasiya Kryvoho attends a candlelight vigil for Ukraine on the Orthodox Holy Saturday, in Toronto, Canada. Reuters -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses a press conference with international media in an underground metro station in Kyiv. AFP -
Firefighters work at the scene of a fire after shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine. EPA -
A family from Myrne, a town occupied by Russian forces, wait to register with police at an evacuation point for people fleeing from Mariupol, Melitopol and surrounding towns. Getty Images -
Oleksandr, 25, meets his parents Olga, 49, and Oleksandr, 50, who fled from the Russian-occupied village of Lyubimivka, at the evacuation point in Zaporizhzhia. EPA -
Residents walk near a damaged military vehicle in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in Mariupol. AP -
A heavily damaged apartment building in Horenka. Getty Images -
Residents wrapped in blankets stand near their houses damaged by Russian shelling in Odesa. AP -
A Ukrainian flag is installed on top of a gob pile in Lysychans, eastern Ukraine. AFP -
A Ukrainian soldier rests at a checkpoint in Severodonetsk. AFP
