By Elizabeth Piper
LONDON (Reuters) – British Defence Minister Ben Wallace met his U.S counterpart in Washington this week to discuss shared security concerns about the situation in Ukraine, a senior defence source said in response to speculation around the sudden trip.
Following advances by Ukrainian forces to retake land in the east of the country, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a partial Russian mobilisation and also issued nuclear threats.
Wallace cancelled a planned committee hearing in parliament on short notice in order to go to Washington on Tuesday, prompting questions around what was behind the apparently urgent nature of the trip.
“There has been a lot of speculation about why the defence secretary travelled to Washington,” the source said.
“As we approach winter in Ukraine with their successes on the battleground against Russian forces and in light of Putin’s recent actions, it was important to meet face to face with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and others from the U.S. administration to discuss our shared security concerns.”
Ukrainian cities are increasingly being targeted by missile and drone strikes, and foreign secretary James Cleverly told Sky News “there’s urgency because civilians are being targeted in a new way and so we have to respond to that.”
“Our response has to be done at pace,” he said on Wednesday.
But on Tuesday junior defence minister James Heappey told Sky News that Wallace was in Washington “having the sort of conversations that – beyond belief, really – the fact that we’re at a time when these sort of conversations are necessary”.
Asked whether Wallace had gone to Washington to discuss the risk that Russia uses nuclear weapons in Ukraine, Prime Minister Liz Truss’s spokesman reiterated that there would be “severe consequences” if Russia used nuclear weapons, but added: “I would guide away from speculating on this as an issue.”
“I think it would be a mistake to be drawn into speculation on this rather than focusing on what we are seeing take place day-by-day, which is a senseless and barbaric attack on civilians across Ukraine,” he told reporters.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, additional reporting by Sachin Ravikumar, writing by Alistair Smout; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
