Vladimir Putin is treating his own citizens as “bits of meat to fling into the grinder”, Keir Starmer has said as he mounted his strongest attack yet on the Russian leader.
In his first speech to the United Nations security council in New York, the prime minister condemned Moscow’s “illegal” invasion of Ukraine, which he said had “caused colossal human suffering”.
“Over 35,000 civilians have been killed or injured, six million forced to flee and almost 20,000 Ukrainian children forcefully deported - kidnapped, to put it bluntly,” he said.
The PM said 600,000 Russian soldiers had either been killed or wounded since the war started in February, 2022.
And referring to the Russian representative on the security council he added: “The UN Charter – which they sit here to uphold – speaks of human dignity. Not treating your own citizens as bits of meat to fling into the grinder.”
His comments echoed those of former Tory defence secretary Ben Wallace, who said Putin will continue to “sacrifice” Russians rather than turning to nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war, according to a UK former defence secretary.
The West is currently weighing up whether to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles inside Russia out of fear Moscow could retaliate with its own nuclear power.
But Ben Wallace, who stood down as a Tory MP at the general election, played down concerns the Ukraine-Russia war could escalate to such heights on Wednesday.
Speaking to host Andrew Neil on Times Radio, Wallace said it would be a “global game changer” if Putin chose to use nuclear weapons, seeing as they have not been used since World War 2 and had effectively become a deterrent.
“The international community will not tolerate the use of a nuclear weapon,” he said, adding that “it would be a very horrific thing no matter what size it is.”
If Putin did go nuclear, he said that “ultimately it would force the Western powers to have to think how they can rethink the nuclear taboo.”
But, Wallace claimed the Russian president has been stopped from going to such extremes by his allies in China and India in the past “because they see the difficulty of it”.
“I don’t think he’s going to go there,” he concluded.
“I think he is simply going to rely on the international community and a Trump presidency flaking, and I think he’s also going to rely on the fact that he can just sacrifice more of his own people.”
Neil asked: “Because he doesn’t care?”
“He doesn’t care,” Wallace agreed.
The former US president Donald Trump is running for re-election, and has repeatedly indicated he would be much softer on Russia if he were to get into the White House again.
He has said only that he wants the Ukraine-Russia war to end but has not specified who he wants to be victorious, sparking fears he would expect Kyiv to cede land to Putin to conclude the conflict.
In the meantime, Russia’s death toll continues to rise. According to the UK’s ministry of defence, there have been more than 600,000 Russian casualties since the war began.
Putin recently announced plans to expand his army for the third time since he invaded Ukraine, and calling for Russia to have 1.5 million active troops in its forces – making it the second largest military force in the world.
But the UK’s MoD claimed on Tuesday that “poorly trained Russian soldiers are being used as cannon fodder”.