Brooks Newmark ‘Putin is acting like a capricious child’
Yesterday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that a Russian border patrol ship opened warning fire towards the British destroyer Defender in the Black Sea. And the Su-24M bomber carried out "warning bombing" because of the alleged "violation of the border of the Russian Federation" near the occupied Sevastopol.
KIEV. June 24. UNN. Brooks Newmark, Member of the UK Parliament from 2005 to 2015. He also served as Secretary of State for Civil Society and is now a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. UNN asked the British politician what reaction this incident caused in Great Britain, and how the two countries can resist Russian provocations.
The UK Department of Defense denied that one of its vessels had been fired upon by Russian naval forces near Crimea. In a statement on Wednesday, the Ministry of Defense indicated that one of its ships "was making an innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters," and that they were not fired upon. How do you see this situation?
Yesterday's incident took place at Cape Fiolent, an area that the UK and NATO do not recognize as Russian territory after the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia. HMS Defender was simply performing normal transit between Ukraine and Georgia. Traveling in international waters has always assumed that a British warship (and the Dutch frigate HNLMS Evertsen) will pass by Sevastopol, the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Britain was well aware in advance that Russia was playing war games in the area, and any bombs that might have been dropped during these Russian exercises were not near the British naval vessel. Two Coast Guard ships operated by the Russian FSB tracked British and Dutch naval vessels, creating a series of meaningless empty threats. which were ignored by NATO warships. As a source in the UK Department of Defense said, “we were in Ukrainian waters, which we were allowed to do, and our naval destroyer was sailing along the most direct route between Ukraine and Georgia.”
What does the British government intend to do now?
Britain, with the support of NATO, is obliged to maintain open and safe sea routes around the world, including in the Black Sea. It is right that the West, including the UK, is ready to declare solidarity with Ukraine, as well as support international maritime law.
Russia believes that the memorandum on maritime cooperation between Ukraine and Great Britain signed the day before is intended to "annoy Russia." Do you see threats to such cooperation? Can Russia intensify its aggression?
Russia sees what it wants to see. Russian protests over “blatant violation of international norms” are typical Russian aggression, masked by false insulted innocence, in addition to false reports that the British ship was heading for Sevastopol, which of course was not. Russian aggression against Ukraine is unlikely to get any worse if there is no all-out war, with Russian puppets fighting in eastern Ukraine and 100,000 Russian troops stationed on Ukraine's eastern border. Britain's support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people is unwavering. NATO and I, I am sure, will prevent a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and Putin knows this. So, like The Wizard of Oz (by playwright Frank Baum - ed.), Putin may make a lot of noise, but he knows
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, commenting on the warning fire from the Russian Federation at the rate of the British destroyer in the Black Sea, stressed the need for a qualitatively new cooperation between NATO and Ukraine in the Black Sea region. What could be this new collaboration?
The UK remains committed to protecting international law, including in the Black Sea. Great Britain remains a staunch ally of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. On Monday, this week in Odessa, aboard the British destroyer HMS Defender, British Defense Procurement Minister Jeremy Quinn and Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Oleksandr Mironyuk signed a memorandum on naval partnership projects between the United Kingdom and the Ukrainian Navy, under which the United Kingdom will help Ukraine to build up military - the sea fleet.
How did the relationship between the UK and Russia develop over the past year? How have political and economic problems improved / worsened?
Relations between the UK and Russia are at a very low level. Putin continues to act like a capricious attention-seeking child who wants to sit down with his big uncles (G7). But in reality, his bad behavior towards Ukraine, his ongoing cyberattacks on our friends in Eastern Europe and the Baltic states, and his regular incursions into British airspace in the north of my country will only lead to further isolation of Putin and his kleptocratic government, the UK, the EU. and the USA.