TORY Foreign Secretary Truss and Labour Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy were united in calling for an escalation of military and economic war against Russia yesterday.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday announced the formation of an ‘international legion’ of foreign nationals who want to fight against Russia and called on them to come to Ukraine where they will receive arms and training.
Speaking on Sky News, Truss backed the call for UK citizens to go to Ukraine to fight, saying that people should be ‘prepared for a very long haul’ and a ‘bloody and long-running conflict’.
First Truss revealed her fears about western reliance on Russian energy supplies, saying: ‘Some European countries have 85% of their gas coming from Russia.
‘What we need to do is agree with our G7 counterparts to reduce that percentage over time.
‘I would support the idea of having ceilings on how much oil and gas is imported from Russia, so that over time we cut the dependency right across Europe. That is what we are working towards with our G7 partners.’
She went on: ‘The real objective is to degrade the Russian economy because what we know is Putin’s war machine is funded by revenues from oil and gas. So what we have to do is reduce dependency on oil and gas.’
Asked if she would support people from Britain going over to Ukraine to fight, Truss said: ‘I do support that, and of course that is something that people can make their own decisions about.’
Truss said the UK government is ‘doing all it can’ to increase arms exports to Ukraine and she called for ‘far more severe sanctions’ against Russia.
She concluded: ‘The sacrifices that we are going to have to undertake in Britain are nothing like the sacrifices that people in Ukraine are suffering now.’
Lammy called for the Russian ambassador to be expelled from the UK, claiming: ‘We’ve had lie after lie and it’s time for him to leave our country.
‘We are currently in a situation effectively of war between Russia and Ukraine. We are now going to cut Russia out of the financial system … Of course, given the lies that Putin has told, we should say to his ambassador, leave the country.’
Lammy added: ‘It’s incredibly important that we increase troops on the eastern flank of NATO.’
Ukraine President Zelensky called for foreign nationals ‘to join the defence of security in Europe’.
He announced that Ukraine is setting up an ‘international’ legion of volunteers for foreigners to join, saying: ‘This is not just Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this is the beginning of a war against Europe, against European unity,’ Zelensky claimed.
He continued: ‘Everyone who wants to join the defence of security in Europe and the world may come and stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukrainians against the invaders of the 21st Century.’
Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, claimed that an ‘overwhelming’ number of foreign nationals are ‘demanding to be allowed to fight’ for Ukraine.
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