SUNDAY 08 FEBRUARY 2015
Vladimir Putin is acting like ‘a mid-20th century tyrant’ who will ‘pay the price’ over Ukraine, says Britain’s Philip Hammond
Sunday 08 February 2015
Mr Putin is due discuss the ongoing Ukrainian crisis with the German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Francois Hollande today, in a phone call that will also involve the Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko.
Mr Hammond said a decision on whether Britain would help arm the Ukrainian military was “under review”, and demanded Russia withdraw its troops not only from Donetsk but also from Crimea, which Putin annexed in March last year.
“Don’t make it sound like that is an outrageous thing for us to demand [of Mr Putin],” the minister told Sky News’ Murnaghan programme.
“This man has sent troops across an international border and occupied another country’s territory in the 21st century acting like some mid-20th century tyrant.
“We do not behave like that. Civilised nations do not behave like that in the 21st century. We live in a rules-based society. We want the Russian people to be part of that international community.
“We want Russia to enjoy the kind of economic growth and rising standards of living that people in the rest of Europe enjoy and we do not see any reason to tolerate this kind of outrageous and outdated behaviour from the Kremlin.”
Mr Hammond dismissed a claim from France’s Mr Hollande that current talks were the “last chance for peace” in Ukraine – noting that a military conflict is already under way. But he agreed that a political solution was the only way to end the crisis, adding that “the Kremlin, Mr Putin, has to understand he will pay a political and economic price for what he is doing in the Ukraine”.
At least 5,000 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine since April 2014, when the country’s Russian-backed president Viktor Yanukovich was forced out during mass street protests in Kiev.
