Liz Truss plans to warn Vladimir Putin that he will never win in Ukraine, despite his “desperate” threat to use nuclear weapons in a speech on Thursday.
She and Joe Biden will both denounce the Russian despot in New York after he delivered a chilling speech in Moscow.
Putin said he ordered the mobilization of reserves to fight in Ukraine and claimed he was “not bluffing” about the use of his nuclear arsenal.
The crisis dominated talks last night between the Prime Minister and President Biden, in which they insisted the West would not give in to aggression.
Addressing the UN General Assembly early in the morning, Miss Truss said Putin was “desperately trying to justify his catastrophic failures.”
Crisis Talks: Liz Truss with Joe Biden last night in New York. They discussed the escalation of the war in Ukraine by Vladimir Putin
She added: “He’s doubling down by sending even more reservists to a terrible fate. He is desperately trying to claim the mantle of democracy for a regime devoid of human rights or freedoms.
“And he makes more false claims and saber-rattling threats.
‘This will not work. The international alliance is strong – Ukraine is strong.’
Miss Truss, who held talks in New York with Olena, Volodymyr Zelensky’s wife, said Ukrainians “defended not only their own country, but our values and the security of the whole world.” That is why we must act’.
President Biden condemned Putin’s threat to deploy his nuclear arsenal after a series of military setbacks.
“A nuclear war cannot be won and should never be fought,” he told the UN General Assembly. “We will stand in solidarity against the Russian aggression, period.”
He said Russia had “blatantly violated core UN principles with a “cruel, unnecessary war” and that its alleged war crimes “should make your blood clot.”
The unprecedented warnings came as:
Russia has released five imprisoned Britons in a deal brokered by Saudi Arabia, including two former soldiers sentenced to death
– Protests arose in Russian cities against the decision to mobilize 300,000 reservists;
– Queues formed at the border with Finland and airline tickets sold out when potential conscripts tried to flee;
– NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned that any use of nuclear weapons would have ‘unprecedented consequences for Russia’;
– Foreign Secretary James cleverly prepared to confront his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov with evidence that Moscow is planning mock referendums in Ukraine’s breakaway republics;
– Miss Truss promised to give Ukraine at least £2.3 billion in military aid next year – the same as promised this year.
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which was supposed to be over in three days, has been hit by a series of disasters.
Smile: Shaun Pinner (center left) and Aiden Aslin (center right), who arrived in Saudi Arabia with other hostages last night
Other British POWs held by Russian authorities have finally been released and are on their way back to the UK
These culminated in Ukrainian troops retaking more than 1,000 square miles of territory this month.
In his incoherent speech yesterday, Putin accused the Western powers of “trying to tear apart and destroy Russia” and claimed that they were “using the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder.” “If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will use absolutely every available means to protect Russia and our people. We’re not bluffing,” he said during a twenty-minute tirade.
“Those who try to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the prevailing winds can turn in their direction.”
The 69-year-old leader did not say whether Moscow would use shorter-range tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield, or the long-range strategic nuclear warheads that can destroy entire cities.
His pre-recorded comments are his most overt threat since the illegal invasion of Ukraine began nearly seven months ago.
A diplomatic source said there was growing fear that Putin would follow through on his threat to use nuclear weapons. “We take this threat very seriously in terms of pure defense, but also as another example of Putin ignoring international agreements,” the source said. “The threat of using tactical nuclear weapons, which would be tragic, or using larger nuclear weapons is very real.”
The source said the Kremlin’s bellicose language suggested Putin was becoming increasingly desperate, adding: “We are not going to engage in a war of words over a nuclear threat from a man who delayed his speech last night, trembled when he delivered it, and is now trying mobilize reservists trying to reach airports across Russia. His lies catch up with him.’
Vladislav Davidzon, a Russia expert at the Atlantic Council think tank, described Putin’s speech as an “act of anger.”
Four police officers with black visors, vests and batons are holding a person in Moscow tonight
“Threatening to use nuclear weapons seems like an extremely reckless gamble, but it is far from certain that Putin will go ahead with it,” he added. “If you have to tell your enemies you’re not bluffing, that probably means you are.”
Putin yesterday signed an immediate “partial mobilization” decree giving his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu the power to call up 300,000 conscripts.
It is Russia’s first mobilization since World War II and draws on the country’s vast military reserves of approximately 25 million people.
The move follows a bill passed by Russian lawmakers to increase penalties for war crimes such as desertion.
The presidential order also forces military contracts to automatically renew until the end of the mobilization period, effectively indefinitely.
Putin’s speech indicated that he plans to immediately recognize the results of mock votes that will take place from Friday in the occupied regions of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhya.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the German Bild tabloid yesterday that Putin “wanted to drown Ukraine in blood, but also in the blood of his own soldiers.”
“I don’t believe he will use these weapons, I don’t believe the world will allow him to use these weapons,” he said, warning the West not to give in to those threats.
‘Tomorrow Putin can say as well as Ukraine, we want a part of Poland, otherwise we will use nuclear weapons. We cannot make these compromises.’
Defense Secretary Ben Wallace labeled the Kremlin’s move as acknowledgment that Putin’s invasion had failed.
He added: “He and his defense secretary have sent tens of thousands of their own citizens to their deaths, ill-equipped and ill-managed. No amount of threats and propaganda can hide the fact that Ukraine is winning this war.”
The Prime Minister reminded her fellow leaders that the Queen had used her own speech to the UN in 1956 to warn the world that it was “vital not only to have strong ideals, but also to have the political will to make them come true’.
She added: ‘Now we have to show that will. We have to fight to defend those ideals.’