The United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss assessed that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "humiliating himself" with his military's actions and failures in Ukraine, urging fellow wealthy nations to help "ensure" that Moscow will be defeated.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine just over two and a half months ago on February 24. Putin's aggression drew swift and widespread international criticism, with the United Nations General Assembly voting overwhelmingly to condemn the attack. Only four countries—North Korea, Syria, Belarus and Eritrea—voted with Russia against that U.N. resolution.
While Putin reportedly believed that his forces would rapidly conquer much of the Eastern European nation and topple the government in Kyiv within days, Russian forces have greatly underperformed compared to analysts' initial expectations. As the war heads toward the end of its third month, Moscow's troops have faced failure after failure as Ukraine's military and ordinary civilians have fought back hard in defense of their country.
"Putin is humiliating himself on the world stage. We must ensure he faces a defeat in Ukraine that denies him any benefit and ultimately constrains further aggression," Truss told other G7 and NATO leaders at a meeting in Germany on Thursday, according to a press release published by the U.K. government.
Truss urged fellow Western leaders to "go further and faster" in support of Ukraine. "Sanctions must remain in place while Russian troops are in Ukraine and peace is threatened," the foreign secretary said.
"We must never lift sanctions in sensitive areas including critical technology like quantum," she added. Truss additionally called on G7 and NATO countries to make military equipment accessible to Ukraine's forces.
G7 nations include the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Japan and Italy. The European Union is also a participant in the group. Previously, the G7 was known as the G8. Russia was ousted from the group of wealthy nations in 2014 after it illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.
Putin has stated his goal of reconstituting the historic Russian Empire, expressing opposition to Ukraine existing as an independent nation. Ukraine has operated independent of Moscow's control for more than three decades, after it left the now-defunct Soviet Union on August 24, 1991.
The Russian president and other top Moscow officials have bizarrely claimed that they must defeat Nazi leaders controlling Kyiv. In reality, Ukraine is led by President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish and had family members killed in the Holocaust perpetuated by the German Nazis in World War II. When Zelensky was first elected in 2019, he won with nearly three-quarters of the vote. Ukraine also had a Jewish prime minister at the time.
Despite analysts' initial predictions, Russia's military has performed poorly in the conflict. Putin's troops have largely failed at capturing any major Ukrainian cities. Meanwhile, 12 Russian generals and thousands of troops have reportedly been killed by Kyiv's forces in the war. These numbers are shockingly high, according to military experts.
"In modern history, there is no situation comparable in terms of the deaths of generals," James Stavridis, the former NATO supreme allied commander for Europe, said during a radio interview on WABC 770 AM on May 1. "Just to make a point of comparison here, the United States in all of our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq...in all of those years and all of those battles, not a single general lost in actual combat."
The former commander explained that "on the Russian side, in a two-month period, we have seen at least a dozen, if not more, Russian generals killed. So amazing incompetence."
Meanwhile, the U.S. and NATO nations have quickly transferred billions of dollars in weapons and humanitarian aid to assist Ukraine. A nearly $40 billion additional aid package is expected to be approved by the Senate next week. The bill already passed the House and has substantial bipartisan support.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian foreign ministry for comment.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Jason Lemon is a Weekend Editor at Newsweek based in Brooklyn, New York. Prior to taking on the editor role, Jason's reporting focused on ... Read more
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