Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is turning into a “much more perilous misadventure” than the Russian president imagined, the deputy prime minister has told Sky News.
Dominic Raab said action taken by the UK so far, including sanctions against individuals close to the Russian president as well as Russian banks, is having an impact.
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He stressed the government would be doing “everything we can to degrade Putin’s war machine” and repeated Boris Johnson’s assertion that the Russian president’s invasion of Ukraine “must fail”.
Mr Raab said he feared Putin would respond to western sanctions with “even more barbaric tactics” in Ukraine.
The justice secretary was speaking after satellite images showed a Russian military convoy stretching around 40 miles closing in on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.
Asked how long the city could hold out against the Russians, Mr Raab said it was “very difficult” to say, but he noted that the Russian advance has “been slowed down more than they expected”.
He said the UK would be doing “everything we can” to delay the fall of the Ukrainian capital and other major cities in the country.
But even if the fall of Kyiv does come to pass, Mr Raab said “that doesn’t mean this is over”, because “I think what you’ll see is Ukrainians bedding down” and preparing to engage in guerrilla warfare.