During Commons exchanges, Defence Committee Chair Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi pressed Defence Secretary John Healey on how the UK is helping to align negotiations with concrete pressure on Russia.
Dhesi said: “Recent Russian attacks across 14 different regions of Ukraine are not actions of peace. Words and actions must align, and it is abundantly clear that both from President Putin present a threat to us all. With such drastic escalation of Putin’s violence running concurrently with peace negotiations, along with Putin’s false reframing of his invasion as some sort of reaction to a Western-backed coup, can my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State shed further light on what levers he has pulled to help enable a peaceful outcome?”
Healey responded by framing the UK’s approach as one of simultaneous military, economic and diplomatic pressure. “It is a truism that peace is secured through strength, and our task in countries such as the UK that strongly support Ukraine is to put it in the strongest possible position on the battlefield and at any negotiating table,” he told MPs.
That meant, he said, “stepping up military support for Ukraine now, which we are doing, and will do further at next week’s UDCG meeting that I will co-chair.” He added that the Government was also “stepping up economic pressure on Putin, which the House will have a chance to hear more about — the Foreign Secretary will announce further measures soon.”
Healey linked this to longer-term planning: “It also means stepping up our preparations for securing any peace for the long term if Trump can help lead negotiations that will lead to a ceasefire and a peace agreement. That is the way that we support Ukraine now, and it is how we can help reinforce the steps towards the possibility of peace tomorrow.”
The Defence Secretary also acknowledged tributes to Admiral Sir Tony Radakin on his final day as Chief of the Defence Staff. “I say to my hon. Friend the Chair of the Defence Committee and to the Opposition spokesman, the hon. Member for South Suffolk (James Cartlidge), that I will ensure tomorrow that Admiral Radakin is aware of the kind comments from both sides of the House. I know that he will appreciate them,” Healey said.
Peace through economic leverage:
‘Russia would lose some $160 billion over a year if oil prices averaged $45 per barrel’
Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina
And through conventional deterrence as set out in the 2025 SDR.
you certainly couldn’t blame the USA if they pulled out of nato, the europeans are clearly trying to provoke russia, and all this, after the west broke it’s word to russia nato would not be allowed to spread eastwards
I think that is Cobblers.
Where is the document stating that NATO would not spread eastward? When did Gorbachev and NATO sign that?
And if Eastern European countries, free of the Russian yoke, decided they wanted western freedoms and values, who is Russia to say no. And why should “the West” refuse them?
Can I suggest in reality it is Russia is trying to provoke the West? Seeming as Russia tried to decapitate Ukraine in 2022?
And are you Russian, Chinese, or a Bot? Considering your lack of punctuation, and use of the words “the Europeans” which suggests you yourself are not?