Vladimir Putin won’t stop at Ukraine, defence secretary warns

Vladimir Putin “won’t stop” after invading Ukraine, UK’s defence secretary Ben Wallace has warned.

Wallace said Russia’s president is “not rational”, something which he said prime minister Boris Johnson also believes.

“He is trying to invade Ukraine. He won’t stop after he’s… with Ukraine. He will use everything in the Baltic States. He doesn’t believe the Baltic States are really countries.”

Truss sent same warning last week

Last week, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss also warned Russia would “not stop at Ukraine”.

At the time, Russia had not yet invaded Ukraine, prompting Truss to say that if it happened, the conflict would produce problems in the wider continent.

She said: “The big risk, of course, is if there is an invasion into Ukraine that will be hugely damaging for Russia and Ukraine. And it will further undermine the stability of Europe.

“This, I fear, would not stop at Ukraine. This is an attack on the neighbouring states of Russia and other east European countries in trying to undermine legitimacy of them being part of NATO.”

Truss even warned that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would be a “very dangerous moment” for the entire world, according to Sky News.

And she pointed to Russia’s close partners, Iran and China. She said Britain is currently negotiating with Iran to stop them from buying a nuclear weapon, whilst China has racked up economic coercion of Taiwan.

“We cannot give a message that aggression gets rewards,” Truss noted.

She added: “If we saw an invasion into Ukraine, there would be severe costs in terms of a long-running conflict, we could see the undermining of security more broadly in Europe and could see other aggressors around the world see it as an opportunity to expand their ambitions too.”

Russia also threatens Finland and Sweden

Meanwhile, just one day after Russia officially launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Moscow is considering military action against Finland and Sweden.

Maria Zakharova has warned both Finland and Sweden that they will face “severe military and political consequences” if they attempt to join NATO.

She said: “Finland and Sweden should not base their security on damaging the security of other countries and their accession to NATO can have detrimental consequences and face some military and political consequences.

Scientists for EU founder Mike Galsworthy said: “Russia now threatening Finland and Sweden means we’re fast moving into WWIII territory.

“US, EU and UK are already invested in conflict against Russia. China softly aligned with Russia. Ukraine may be only hot spot now, but cyber/finance is global – and Russia menacing rest of continent.”

Writer Susan Glasser said: “So now Russia believes it can dictate the national security policy of Sweden and Finland. Clear that Putin does not recognize the sovereign right of nations in his neighborhood to self government.

“This war is not just about Ukraine.”

Andra Maciuca

Andra is a multilingual, award-winning NQJ senior journalist and the UK’s first Romanian representing co-nationals in Britain and reporting on EU citizens for national news. She is interested in UK, EU and Eastern European affairs, EU citizens in the UK, British citizens in the EU, environmental reporting, ethical consumerism and corporate social responsibility. She has contributed articles to VICE, Ethical Consumer and The New European and likes writing poetry, singing, songwriting and playing instruments. She studied Journalism at the University of Sheffield and has a Masters in International Business and Management from the University of Manchester. Follow her on: