WALLACE: NOW PUTIN KNOWS HE’S NO LONGER INVINCIBLE

FAILURES PROVE RUSSIA IS NO LONGER A SUPERPOWER, SAYS DEFENCE SECRETARY | Putin believed his own hype but now the momentum is with Ukraine

- Nicholas Cecil and David Bond

VLADIMIR PUTIN is discovering that Russia is no longer a superpower with his army’s series of failures in Ukraine, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said today.

In an interview with the Standard, the Cabinet minister also stressed that the international community had to defeat Putin’s invasion to show that wars cannot be won by “shoving millions of people into a meat grinder with no rules, no regard for human lives”. Following training by the UK and allies, he also argued that now “the basic Ukrainian soldier is better than the basic Russian soldier”, given the scale of losses suffered by Putin’s professional military and the deployment of tens of thousands of poorly-trained troops to the frontline after his 300,000 part-mobilisation.

Asked how he believes the conflict will end, Mr Wallace said: “I don’t know. I mean, superpowers have lost wars before: the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, the United States in Vietnam. It’s not unheard of for big powers to have to reconcile a defeat in a neighbouring country, or another country they’ve been engaged in.”

Pressed on whether he thought a superpower would lose again, he added: “Well, he’s not a superpower is what he has just discovered. That’s the key.

“One part of it is like, you believed your own hype, you believed your parade ground hype, you counted tanks on the parade ground and presume you are invincible and you are not.”