Tobias Ellwood, the former chair of the UK’s Defence Select Committee has told Express.co.uk that the West, including Britain, needs to “look Putin in the eye and stand up to him”, otherwise it is “inevitable” the war in Europe will spread.
Asked about Ukraine’s recent advance into the Russian border region of Kursk, the Lieutenant Colonel and former MP for Bournemouth East, told this website: “With more and more respected voices warning of a wider conflict in Europe it’s deeply concerning the West is not doing enough to put the Ukraine fire out.”
He added that Ukraine’s “bold land grab into Russia proves what the brave Ukrainian fighters are capable of, and Russia is not the invincible superpower it claims to be.”
On the question of whether the surprise incursion into Russia by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces ramps up the overall danger of the conflict escalating, Mr Ellwood added: “We seriously need to rekindle our Cold War statecraft skills to be able to look Putin in the eye and stand up to him – conscious of the escalatory ladder. If we don’t a wider conflict in Europe is inevitable.”
Ukrainian troops have taken charge of 28 towns and villages in Kursk Oblast, pushing 12km into Russia territory, according to Alexei Smirnov, the acting regional governor of Kursk.
However, former US Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst, now a senior director at the Atlantic Council told USA Today: “The latest data, not confirmed, says they’ve taken as much as 750 square kilometres and may have gone as far as 35 kilometres from the border.”
Meanwhile, Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief, told President Zelensky on Monday that “as of now nearly 1000 square kilometres [400 square miles] of Russian Federation territory are under our control”.
Despite the doubt over the scale of the incursion, the significance of it is hard to overstate given its the first invasion of Russian since the Nazis forced their way over the border in 1941.
Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Crawford earlier told Express.co.uk that Ukraine was “back on top” in the conflict, after breaking over the Russian border.
Lt Col Crawford, who spent 20 years in the 4th Royal Tank Regiment, told this website: “Ukraine has managed to wrestle back the initiative from the Russians, for a short time at least. Now Putin is dancing to Zelensky’s tune for a change.
“Whether this is just a cross-border raid as some have claimed or whether they plan to stay remains to be seen.”
