If we don't stop Vladimir Putin now he'll wage war on more countries like the Baltic states, warns Foreign Secretary Liz Truss

  • Foreign Secretary warns Putin could annex former Soviet states after Ukraine
  • Russian President put on another huge show of military strength on Saturday 
  • Boris Johnson had warned any Russian invasion would 'echo around the world' 

Vladimir Putin will keep waging war on neighbouring countries if he is allowed to invade Ukraine, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has warned.

As the Russian President put on a huge show of military strength with nuclear drills involving ballistic missiles, submarines and tank convoys yesterday, Ms Truss issued a last-ditch plea for the international community to unite to face down Moscow's aggression.

Ms Truss used an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday to argue that if Putin attacked Ukraine it would be a precursor to Russia using force to annex more former Soviet states.

'We need to stop Putin because he will not stop at Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin will keep waging war on neighbouring countries if he is allowed to invade Ukraine, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has warned

As the Russian President (above) put on a huge show of military strength with nuclear drills involving ballistic missiles (left), submarines and tank convoys yesterday, Ms Truss issued a last-ditch plea for the international community to unite to face down Moscow's aggression

As tension escalated in east Ukraine on Friday, the leaders of the Lugansk People's Republic and the Donetsk People's Republic announced a mass evacuation of civilians to Russia

Citizens of the Donetsk People's Republic are seen at a railway station in Debaltsevo during a mass evacuation to Russia's Rostov-on-Don Region

Ukrainian civilians are trained by the armed forces to join a new military branch: the Territorial Defense Force in a training ground in Dnipro on Saturday

Volunteers are seen at a mobilisation station as tension escalated in east Ukraine on Saturday when a mass evacuation of civilians to Russia was announced

Citizens of the Donetsk People's Republic are seen outside a train at a railway station in Debaltsevo during a mass evacuation to Russia's Rostov-on-Don Region

A Ukrainian serviceman points to the direction of the incoming shelling next to a building which was hit by a large caliber mortar shell in the frontline village of Krymske, Luhansk region, in eastern Ukraine

'He's been very clear – his ambition doesn't just lead to him taking control of Ukraine, he wants to turn the clock back to the mid 1990s or even before then,' she said.

'The Baltic States are at risk… the Western Balkans as well.

'Putin has said all this publicly, that he wants to create the Greater Russia, that he wants to go back to the situation as it was before where Russia had control over huge swathes of Eastern Europe.

'So it's so important that we and our allies stand up to Putin. It could be Ukraine next week but then which country will it be next?'

The Foreign Secretary's words came as Boris Johnson warned that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could cause 'the destruction of a democratic state' and 'the shock will echo around the world'.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference today, the Prime Minister said the 'omens are grim' from Russia on the possibility of an invasion in the coming days, and that the world could not 'underestimate the gravity of this moment'.

Ukrainian soldiers taking part in military exercises on February 18, 2022 as fears of a Russian invasion persist

Volunteers are seen at a mobilisation station in east Ukraine on Saturday after a mass evacuation of civilians to Russia was announced as tensions escalate 

Citizens of the Lugansk People's Republic arrive to a railway station to board a Russia-bound train during mass evacuation from Lugansk, east Ukraine. The train is the first to depart for Russia from the Lugansk People's Republic since 2014

Volunteers receive uniform at a military compound of the people's police of the Lugansk People's Republic on Saturday

Citizens of the Donetsk People's Republic are seen at a railway station in Debaltsevo during a mass evacuation to Russia's Rostov-on-Don Region

Volunteers receive uniform at a military compound of the people's police of the Lugansk People's Republic as tensions escalate in east Ukraine

Ukrainian civilians are trained by the armed forces to join a new military branch: the Territorial Defense Force in a training ground in Dnipro on Saturday

Mr Johnson, who met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the summit, said: 'If Ukraine is invaded and if Ukraine is overwhelmed, we will witness the destruction of a democratic state, a country that has been free for a generation, with a proud history of elections. 

'And every time Western ministers have visited Kyiv, we have reassured the people of Ukraine and their leaders that we stand four-square behind their sovereignty and independence.

'How hollow, how meaningless, how insulting those words would seem if at the very moment when their sovereignty and independence is imperilled we simply look away.

A police officer stands guard at a railway station as citizens of the Lugansk People's Republic board a Russia-bound train during a mass evauation from Lugansk, east Ukraine

Volunteers receive uniform at a military compound of the people's police of the Lugansk People's Republic on Saturday

The formation of the Territorial Defense Force is to harness well-trained civilian reservists around the country, led by professional soldiers, to help combat Russia's possible invasion

Ukrainian male civilians were seen wearing camouflage gear and firing guns as they were trained by the armed forces to join a new military branch: the Territorial Defense Force in a training ground in Dnipro on Saturday

Police officers stand guard at a railway station as citizens of the Lugansk People's Republic board a Russia-bound train during a mass evacuation from Lugansk, east Ukraine

 Boris Johnson has warned an invasion of Ukraine could cause 'the destruction of a democratic state' and 'the shock will echo around the world'. Pictured: The Prime Minister meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

A Tu-22M3 Russian bomber flies over the Mediterranean after taking off from the Hemeimeem air base in Syria in Putin's latest show of force

Volunteers receive uniform at a military compound of the people's police of the Lugansk People's Republic as tension escalated in east Ukraine this weekend

'If Ukraine is invaded, the shock will echo around the world.' Mr Johnson added that new legislation allowing the UK to widen its sanctions against the country would 'open up the matryoshka dolls' of Russian-owned companies and make it impossible for them to raise finance in London.

The Russian military exercises involved Mig fighter bombers armed with hypersonic missiles patrolling over the Mediterranean from their bases in Syria, and included practice launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the manoeuvres, which included the Black Sea Fleet, based on the Crimean Peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, 'should not cause anyone concern'.

It came as Ukraine's Russian-backed breakaway eastern territories have ordered military mobilisations, with men of fighting age in the self-declared people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk being put on stand-by.

Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed and four injured by shelling on Saturday, as international monitors reported a 'dramatic increase' in attacks along the line dividing rebel and government forces.

 

EXCLUSIVE: Foreign Secretary Liz Truss insists we're facing the fight of our generation as war in Europe looms... and Britain is standing up to be counted 

By Glen Owen, Political Editor for the Mail on Sunday 

As the winds from Storm Eunice whip around the Foreign Office's Victorian edifice, Liz Truss warns Vladimir Putin that if he invades Ukraine it could trigger the end of his 23-year rule over the Russian people.

'The Ukrainians will fight back, and they will see coffins going back to Russia,' says Ms Truss.

'This could be the end of Putin if there is an invasion into Ukraine. The Russians don't like hearing that message, but they have to hear it.'

When we spoke on Friday afternoon, the Foreign Secretary had just returned from a flying visit to the Ukrainian capital Kiev, and was preparing to speak at yesterday's Munich Security Conference on the threat posed by Moscow.

It is clear that Western intelligence 'chatter' – once it has been purged of Russian disinformation ploys – points to an imminent conflict, and one which she fears could be the precursor to wider land grabs.

'We need to stop Putin because he will not stop at Ukraine. 

'He's been very clear – his ambition doesn't just lead to him taking control of Ukraine, he wants to turn the clock back to the mid-1990s or even before then,' says Ms Truss, who believes Putin is trying to restore the borders of the old Soviet Union.

'The Baltic states are at risk ... the western Balkans as well. Putin has said all this publicly, that he wants to create the Greater Russia, that he wants to go back to the situation as it was before where Russia had control over huge swathes of Eastern Europe. So it's so important that we and our allies stand up to Putin,' she says.

'It could be Ukraine next week but then which country will it be next?'

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss speaks with the Mail on Sunday's Glen Owen at her Westminster Office. Ms Truss believes Putin is trying to restore the borders of the old Soviet Union

Since her appointment last September, Ms Truss has racked up an air miles tally which is impressive even by the standards of her job as she has combined shuttle diplomacy with trade talks and Brexit negotiations – while still holding the women and equalities brief. 

Does she ever sleep, or get to see her affable husband Hugh and their two daughters?

'Maybe I sleep slightly less than I used to, but this is what I want to be doing,' says Ms Truss, 46, who has recently recovered from a 'very mild' brush with Covid.

'What we are seeing taking place in Europe could be the fight of our generation. Britain is standing up and being counted at this point. This is what I want to be doing in the job, and this is what the Prime Minister wants to be doing, so it is worthwhile.'

Ms Truss, who along with Chancellor Rishi Sunak is regarded as a frontrunner to succeed Boris Johnson, regularly tops polls of Tory party members who are attracted to her neo-Thatcherite, low-tax, free-market political ideology.

Civilians with all ages receive military training at an old industrial plant to defend their country as the Ukraine-Russia crisis continue in Desnianskyi district outside Kiev, Ukraine

How does she think Margaret Thatcher would have dealt with the Ukraine crisis?

'I think she would have done exactly what Boris Johnson is doing, which is showing leadership, working with our American allies, working with our European allies,' says Ms Truss – at pains to convey loyalty by associating the Prime Minister rather than herself with his predecessor.

The tensions over Putin's military build-up on Ukraine's borders have been compounded by confusion in the West over whether it is just a bluff designed to intimidate Kiev into dropping plans to join Nato, with the intelligence picture complicated by Russian disinformation campaigns – including claims about the withdrawal of Russian troops.

To counter the propaganda, Ms Truss revealed that she is establishing a new Russia-Ukraine Government Information Cell (GIC), which will draw on expertise from across government to expose disinformation and rebut fake narratives

'There was false information put into the public domain that there was some kind of withdrawal; there was never any withdrawal, all we've seen is the building up of troops on the border and we still believe that it's highly likely that Putin will invade, and we need to prepare for that'.

Western governments are primed for a so-called 'false flag' excuse for an invasion, such as last week's claim that Ukraine had shelled a nursery, as well as supposed abuses of the human rights of Russian citizens in the country, with Moscow using the pretext of protecting its citizens.

To counter the propaganda, Ms Truss revealed that she is establishing a new Russia-Ukraine Government Information Cell (GIC), which will draw on expertise from across government to expose disinformation and rebut fake narratives. 

It will be the first time such a unit has operated since the Cold War.

It is clear that Western intelligence 'chatter' – once it has been purged of Russian disinformation ploys – points to an imminent conflict, and one which she fears could be the precursor to wider land grabs. Pictured: Russian and Belarusian servicemen in mock military drills in Brest, Belarus on February 19, 2022

The UK has supplied defensive weapons to the Ukrainians and has helped to put together a package of sanctions against the Russian regime – which the Kremlin has claimed they 'don't give a s*** about'. Pictured: More Russian-Belarusian military drills being conducted on February 19, 2022

She says: 'Since the start of this month there have already been 40 pieces of Russian false information that have been put out. 

'We've done a lot to rebut that, so we exposed the plot that the Russians were seeking to install a puppet government into Kiev and the false flag operation claiming that the Ukrainians had attacked when that wasn't true. 

'We have seen a doubling of the amount of disinformation activity in the last week, so we know that the Russians are gearing up.'

Speaking in her expansive office overlooking St James's Park – and under the gaze of a Churchill bust – she adds: 'At the end of the Cold War we disbanded our information unit, but the Russians didn't disband theirs, so we faced years and years of Russian disinformation. 

'We are fighting back, we're working with our allies so that Putin cannot continue trying to claim things that aren't true. We're pushing him out into the open so the world will know if Putin invades over the next days or weeks that this is an aggressive act by the Russian government, and there is no excuse for it, there is no provocation.'

A satellite image taken by Maxar Technologies shows a Russian deployment at Zyabrovka airfield in Gomel, Belarus, less than 15 miles from the border with Ukraine

A Russian video of air defence crews taking up position during joint military exercises with Belarus that began on Thursday, further raising the stakes

Ms Truss has had to tolerate treatment which can border on the patronising from her male counterparts: a fraught trip to Moscow this month ended with the Kremlin's Sergey Lavrov declaring that his exchange with Ms Truss was 'like talking to a deaf person'. 

She tactfully describes him as 'very old school ... he's been around for years and years since the USSR'. 

She says: 'I made very clear to him that it would be a huge mistake for Russia to invade Ukraine – and the Ukrainians will fight back.

'I'm afraid there has been a decade of drift where the threat from Russia hasn't been taken seriously enough by some of our allies. We need to strengthen our resolve'.

The UK has supplied defensive weapons to the Ukrainians and has helped to put together a package of sanctions against the Russian regime – which the Kremlin has claimed they 'don't give a s*** about'.

'They would say that wouldn't they? Of course they would,' she says.

'Nevertheless, I think Putin could do this anyway and I think the impact of the coffins coming back to Russia will be as big as the impact of the sanctions, because the Russian people will not want to see their own friends and family die in a conflict with their fellow men and women in Ukraine.

'The Russians and Ukrainians as peoples are very close, so this is why I think it will be a huge mistake for Putin. I fear he is determined to make this mistake ,but I think it could be the end of Putin.'

Ms Truss is one of the leading hawks in the Cabinet over the UK's relations with China, and is particularly concerned by the burgeoning axis between Beijing and Moscow.

'I am concerned that we are seeing China and Russia apparently acting together – I think it's extraordinary that China is now commenting on who should and shouldn't be a member of Nato. Of course we need to trade with China but we shouldn't become strategically dependent on them'.

Some of her more envious colleagues accused Ms Truss of 'overplaying her hand' in terms of unsubtle leadership positioning as Mr Johnson has been buffeted by the Partygate saga, holding drinks meetings with backbench MPs in a Mayfair members' club, dubbed 'fizz with Liz' events.

Would she, in Mr Johnson's words, 'grab the ball' of leadership if it came free from the scrum?

'The job of Foreign Secretary is very absorbing, it's an incredibly important time, both for the world and the United Kingdom post-Brexit, and I 100 per cent support the Prime Minister, I work very very closely with him and believe me, it takes up all of the hours in my day and more,' she says without missing a beat.

'The Prime Minister is going to fight the next Election, he is going to win the next Election, we have positive momentum and we are getting things done, we have had a very successful rollout of the vaccine, we've had a very successful opening up of the economy and things are motoring.'

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