Vladimir Putin will not stop in Ukraine

The British Defense Secretary, Ben Wallace, left after four years in office and was replaced by a rookie, the Energy Secretary Grant Shs, in a change of figures within a government very tight to face a general election. In the “castling”, Claire Coutinho replaces Shps as Secretary of Energy.

With Europe at war and the conviction that the conflict is going to spread, Wallace, former intelligence officer and soldier of the prestigious The Rifles regiment, said goodbye to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and before launching a disturbing warning. Britain must arm itself quickly because Vladimir Putin will not stop in Ukraine.

“The Ministry of Defense is back on the path to becoming world class again with world class people. The UK is respected around the world for our Armed Forces. That respect has only increased since the war in Ukraine,” wrote Ben Wallace, who was a military intelligence officer in the conflict in Northern Ireland, in his resignation letter to the prime minister.

“I know you agree with me that we shouldn’t go back to the days when defense was considered a discretionary government expense and savings were achieved through earmarking. I really think that Over the next decade, the world will become more insecure and unstable. “We both share the belief that now is the time to invest” said Wallace, in his farewell to Rishi Sunak.

“As I finish my term, I can reflect that the Ministry of Defense that I leave is now more modern, better funded and safer than the organization that I took over in 2019,” he said.

Wallace will seek to recover his family life, after his resignation, and find a new professional path.

Although he earned a mix of praise and criticism for his role as Defense Secretary, Wallace was vindicated in his initially controversial comments about the West’s proach to Russia, in which he said there was a “smell of Munich in the air.” It was a reference to the failed negotiations in the run-up to World War II.

Wallace’s comments were made in mid-February. Putin caused the deaths of thousands of innocent people by starting his war in Ukraine that same month.

A BBC Radio 4 profile of him told the story of how Wallace was one of the “main members of the army staff tasked with recovering Princess Diana’s body from La Pitie Salpetriere Hospital in France, after her fatal car accident in Paris in 1997, alongside the current King Charles III. Ben Wallace was there, in London, in the chel of St James’s Palace, when the two young princes, William and Harry, were taken to see their mother’s coffin, exactly 26 years ago. today.

The arrival of Grant Shs to the Ministry of Defense produced “a great depression” in the staff, according to military sources.

Although he has experience as a minister, Grant Shps knows nothing about the military world. He will have to learn, when there is a dangerous war underway and huge funding challenges for the British armed forces, who supply weons to Ukraine and whom Ukrainians consider their best allies. Wallace told Ukraine that they were “not Amazone” and should say “thank you” when they were given weons.

A senior Whitehall source mused that Shps’ choice suggests Rishi Sunak “prefers pearance over substance”, placing a strong communicator in one of the government’s most important jobs, rather than an experienced candidate, in a delicate and strategic topic.

Other names that had been mentioned as possible contenders to replace Ben Wallace included the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Anne Marie Trevelyan, former head of Defense, or the Minister of Security, Tom Tugendhat, ex-military and Afghanistan veteran, former officer of intelligence, who previously served as a reservist.

“How depressing,” the source said. Another source added: “Grant is solid but he is not a military warrior!”

There will be relief within the MoD that at least Shps is an experienced cabinet minister and not a junior politician.

The priority for the new minister will be the UK’s response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Wallace, a former army officer, had played a key role in galvanizing international support for arming the Ukrainian military. It’s a task that will become increasingly important in the coming months, as the threat of “war fatigue” grows among some Western allies. Especially in the United States, in the middle of the electoral campaign, and with Donald Trump refusing to collaborate with Ukraine.

Another critical area is the need to rebuild the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, after decades of cuts and lack of funding.

The British Army is in a sorry state. It has delivered many of its obsolete weons (armored vehicles, artillery pieces and ammunition) in stocks to Ukraine, which will need to be replenished, as part of a broader modernization program, which requires strong leadership. You also urgently need ammunition.

For the Navy, it has been struggling with recruitment. No one is interested in joining it. All amid warnings of dire consequences for the ability to man ships and even nuclear deterrent submarines if the number of people signing up does not improve.

As for the RAF, it has been dealing with multiple crises During the past year. Including the revelation of an illegal recruitment campaign, which saw white men disadvantaged in favor of women and ethnic minorities.

There have also been serious problems with flight training, that have not yet been resolved. Morale among fighter pilots is very low

The army is dealing with a multibillion-dollar program to renew its fleet of nuclear-armed submarines. At the same time it is growing a new fleet of nuclear-powered vessels, in partnership with Australia and the United States. This program is of national strategic importance and is something the Secretary of Defense will need to grasp quickly.

The pointment in the defense ministry did not excite the opposition. The Shadow Attorney General of the Labor Party, Emily Thornberry was lidary, when The British general elections are proaching.

“It doesn’t really matter how many new jobs Rishi Sunak gives his friends. “It’s still just moving the deck chairs. “They are still a sinking ship,” he described.

He said Britain “really needs change” and the only real change the country could see is the election of a Labor government. It must be remembered that Rishi Sunak was elected by his party as Prime Minister and not by the people.

When asked about the legacy of outgoing Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, Thornberry said: “His work in the Ukraine has been excellent and we have given him our full support.” It concerns the kind of reforms that are needed within the armed forces, and particularly in the army.” He mentioned the state of housing for military personnel, as well as their remuneration and “welfare.”

But when asked if that means Labor plans to vastly increase defense spending if it enters government, he did not comment, citing Labor’s commitment to being fiscally responsible.

When asked if Grant Shps would take over leadership of the British armed forces, Thornberry described him as a “talented politician”. And he added: “I hope you will listen to the advice of the experts who will be in the Defense Ministry.”

Shs has welcomed two Ukrainian families into his home, who took refuge in Britain at the beginning of the war.