Ukraine can win the war, and Russia is “more fragile” than it seems, the Secretary of State for Defence of the United Kingdom, Ben Wallace, said.
“The splinter in the hierarchy of the Russian army is very real, the casualty rates are atrocious,” Wallace added.
Wallace says that Russia’s war against Ukraine has “reinvigorated” the North Atlantic Alliance, which has been stagnating in recent years.
“Post-1991, Nato had just stagnated … Many populations in Europe would have been surprised that NATO was a nuclear alliance. They’d just forgotten to talk about it. So, it didn’t have plans to do ‘what happens if,’” the minister noted.
However, the Alliance is currently an effective deterrent for Putin. The Russian president “has not dared go near NATO,” Wallace believes.
“We have not seen lashings out into areas like Estonia or Latvia. They [Russia] have been absolutely considerate of NATO. They have been really, really cautious to make sure that they don’t provoke,” Secretary of State for Defense of the United Kingdom said.
In general, NATO is fulfilling its functions, Wallace concluded.
Cover: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AFP/Getty Images
