British defence minister Ben Wallace warned against over-crediting the Russian "destabilisation" brought about by Saturday's (June 24) armed revolt by Wagner forces during his closing speech at the RUSI annual conference on Monday (June 26), Reuters reports.
"The war in Ukraine is still being prosecuted by the Russian general staff, and as I sit here right now, General Gerasimov and Minister Shoigu are still doing their day job," he said.
When asked whether Russian President Putin chose to invade Ukraine because NATO had not shown sufficient political will or expenditure to create a formidable defence force, Wallace said he did not believe Putin was "frightened of NATO", but that the Russian leader was "probably more willing to do it" in 2014 because of a lack of collective action by the international community.
"We should have been much tougher in 2014," he added.
Wallace also addressed General Tim Radford's recent comment that the British Army is too small, saying it was still "one of the biggest armed forces in Europe".
The defence minister was also asked to address speculation that he wishes to become NATO's next Secretary General after Jens Stoltenberg.
"First of all, you don't quite apply, but look I'm not going to be doing it this year, or next year or the year after, so you know it's for others to take up that job," he told the conference audience.
