Liz Truss has called for a “tightening of the ratchet” on Vladimir Putin with further sanctions by Western allies, warning that the Russian president could turn to “more and more extreme violence”.
In an interview with The Telegraph, the Foreign Secretary said it was time to be “strong and tough” with Putin following the horrifying attack on a maternity hospital in Mariupol.
Ms Truss said Putin must be offered no concessions and must be “seen to lose” in Ukraine, calling for Russia to be fully excluded from the Swift international payments system and for an end to Russian oil and gas dependency across the G7.
She accused Putin of playing an “appalling cat and mouse game” with Ukrainian civilians in bogus humanitarian corridors, and vowed that Britain was “in it for the long haul” to help Ukraine.
Amid a row between the US and Poland over a failed plan to supply MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, she indicated that Britain believed the anti-aircraft weapons it has agreed to send were “the most effective way of dealing with the aerial threat the Ukrainians face”.
Britain has played a central role in the international response to the invasion, and Ms Truss delivered an uncompromising message on a visit to Washington this week, saying allies must remain “resolute”.
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Following a lengthy meeting with Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, she told The Telegraph: “We discussed what more sanctions we can put on. We’re very clear the ratchet needs to be tightened.
“The sanctions are already having a debilitating effect on the Russian economy. Russia is being pushed back to a pre-globalised age. People can’t use their Apple Pay any more, the Russian government can’t access a lot of the foreign currency reserves that they’ve had. People can’t go to McDonald’s in Moscow any more.”
She said existing sanctions were squeezing funding to Putin’s war machine but the West “needs to do more”.
Some Russian banks have been removed from Swift, but Germany has been accused of resisting the blocking of the state-backed Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, which handles energy-related transactions.
Ms Truss said: “I’ve said we want to see a full ban on Swift, we want to see a clear timetable to reduce dependency on oil and gas across the G7 and our allies. We need to keep the pressure up on Putin.
“What our sanctions are about is cutting off the funding for Putin to be able to operate. It will take time, but we can see signs that it is working.”
Ms Truss said Putin was not making the gains he expected in Ukraine, but there must be no offers to him. She added: “Now is not the time to let up or give concessions because what we’ve seen in the past is that when Putin gets concessions, he banks them and then comes back for more. This is the time we need to be strong, and be tough, and be resolute.
“He has to withdraw from Ukraine. He has to be seen to lose in Ukraine. That is what is important.”
As the mothers of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine realised their sons were not coming back, pressure on the Kremlin would mount, she said. She said Russia was also overstretched through its other commitments, including in Syria, and its mercenaries in the Sahel.
But she added: “What I worry about is, because Putin isn’t making the progress he wants… he is turning to more and more extreme forms of violence, and we saw the appalling attack on the hospital.
“We are concerned about what might be next, which is why it’s so important that we are resolute in pursuing tougher sanctions, continuing to supply defensive weapons and continuing to support the Ukrainians.”
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She declined to speculate on the type of “weapons or practices” Putin might use, but Western officials have warned that he could be plotting a chemical or biological attack.
Ms Truss criticised the Russian offer of humanitarian corridors that would lead Ukrainian civilians into Russia or Belarus, adding: “Certainly, what we’ve seen with the establishment of the so-called humanitarian corridors is Putin playing a cat and mouse game with the Ukrainian people.
“These are not genuine humanitarian corridors. They lead to Russia and Belarus, which are not safe havens for the Ukrainian people, and often there are attacks taking place in these corridors. It’s simply appalling.
“I’m pretty clear there’s a strong case [for Putin] to answer on crimes against humanity and war crimes, and we are working with our allies to collect evidence about the appalling atrocities that are taking place in Ukraine.”
The Foreign Secretary said the invasion was a lesson that the West must not let its guard down.
“The fact is we have been complacent,” she added. “We have let our defences down. We must never allow that to happen again and I don’t just mean military defences.
“Over the past 20 years, Nato hasn’t spent enough on defence, but we’ve also allowed our economy to become strategically dependent on Russian oil and gas. I don’t just mean the UK, I mean the West generally. We cannot be dependent again, or complacent again, about the threat that authoritarian regimes pose.”
Ms Truss said banning Russian oil imports would have a “cost” in the UK but it was “nothing compared to the cost the Ukrainian people are facing, of seeing their country attacked and trampled on.”
She called for “opening up new reserves, opening up new supplies” and, in the longer term, investing in nuclear power and new technologies.
Ms Truss said she did not foresee circumstances in which there could be a no-fly zone over Ukraine, adding that it “would mean direct engagement between Nato and Russia, and that is something we don’t want”.
