The war in Ukraine will be spell the end of Vladimir Putin, Ben Wallace has said.
The defence secretary said the Russian president’s invasion of Ukraine meant he was a “spent force in the world”.
Wallace said that despite launching his attack on Ukraine 13 days ago, the war had not gone his way and that the Russian forces were “already exhausted” and had suffered mass casualties.
He said the cost to Putin was not just simply the invasion, but the “decades of occupation” that would follow “which I don’t think he will be able to sustain”.
“This will be Putin’s end, this country, and so it should be because of, not only their spirit and the moral component that they have on their side – the Ukrainians – but also because it will be an impossible task to occupy such a people and a country,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“Whatever we think about president Putin, he is done,” he added.
“He is a spent force in the world. No-one will be taking his phone calls in the long term.
“He has exhausted his army, he is responsible for thousands of Russian soldiers being killed, responsible for innocent people being killed, civilians being killed in Ukraine.
“He is reducing his economy to zero, because the international community has decided that is absolutely unacceptable, what he’s done.
“So he is a spent force in the world and I don’t know whether he thinks that’s a clever thing to be, but that diminishes his own country in the world and he has to take responsibility for that.”
Wallace’s comments come as the UK comes under further pressure to offer more military and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.
Wallace said he would announce further would update MPs on Wednesday on the support being offered by the UK to the Ukrainian forces.
He also agreed that the process of speeding up visa applications for those fleeing Ukraine could be speeded up, after it emerged that only 300 visas had been issued from a total of 17,700 family scheme applications which have been started, 8,900 of which have been submitted.
“I know the home secretary is determined to speed that up,” Wallace told Sky News.
“This is fast moving. The first duty is for the government to help people get to safety … the next responsibility is to make sure we process them as quickly as possible.
“Of course, we can do that quicker, we are leaning into that, the home secretary is determined to do that quicker, I will give her all the support I can.”
Home secretary Priti Patel came under fire for the government’s chaotic approach to the refugee scheme after her department initially claimed that “around 50” visas had so far been issued — a figure Patel later described as “absolutely innacurate”.
So far the UK has created two pathways for Ukrainian refugees — a family route for those with family ties to the UK and a sponsorship scheme whereby those without family can be matched by businesses and charities.
But Patel claimed yesterday that the UK would also set up an additional “humanitarian” route for Ukrainian refugees without family ties to the UK, which was later contradicted by Boris Johnson.