PEACE IN UKRAINE CANNOT BE ON PUTIN’S TERMS, SAYS SHADOW DEFENCE MINISTER

Shadow Defence Minister Mark Francois has said the Conservatives would consider supporting some British troops in Ukraine but peace cannot be dictated by the Russians.

Speaking on GB News, Mark Francois said:

“These negotiations should involve the Ukrainians, they should not be excluded.
“They clearly were not in the room and after everything that Ukraine has been through, it’s almost exactly three years now since the invasion, it’s not right to have negotiations about the future of their country above their head.
“They should be in the room, not least because any settlement that might be agreed between Trump and Putin isn’t going to work unless the Ukrainians are on board.
“Because you don’t know what the final outlook of a of any deal is, and it would have to have Ukrainian support. Once you know what that is, you can get in to designing some kind of force to help maintain it.
“But until you know the actual parameters of any agreement, you’re putting the cart before the horse.
“We in the opposition would be open minded about the potential of deploying some British troops, but you need to know how many, where, for how long and what exactly is the mission?
“It would depend how many you were deploying, and how often you were rotating them; it would all depend on the structure and nature of the deal, and then what other countries wanted to contribute.
“One important point, though, in terms of some Americans saying that NATO Europe hasn’t stepped up and done enough. For the record, Article V of the Washington Treaty, the famous clause that says an attack on one is treated as an attack on all, has only ever been invoked once, and it was invoked by the United States, in 2001 after 9/11 when nearly 4000 Americans and some Brits who were working in the twins towers were murdered.
“Bush, rightfully, in my view, invoked Article V and said the United States has been attacked, and European NATO nations, particularly the UK, came to their aid. Within a few weeks, you had British Special Forces with American special forces and Australians, fighting and killing terrorists in the caves of Boro Boro.
“Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, has said today that it would be unacceptable to Russia for Western troops to be deployed into Ukraine.
“It’s not his decision. If the Ukrainians asked for Western troops to be deployed into their country, if we knew what the mission was, Russia should not have a veto on that.
“There was a famous British Admiral in World War One called Admiral Sir Jackie Fisher. He was the First Sea Lord, and he famously said, ultimately, all nations desire peace, but peace on their terms. Whatever these negotiations lead to, we cannot allow peace on Putin’s terms.”