Britain’s outgoing Defense Secretary, Ben Wallace, made some interesting comments this afternoon about the war in Ukraine.

Speaking at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change conference in London, he argued that NATO was proving to be an effective deterrent to Vladimir Putin – and that “Russia is much more fragile” than Moscow wants to admit, Sky News reported.

“An increasingly aggressive President Putin, with constant threatening red lines that then usually melt away, has not dared to get closer to NATO,” he said.

“They were absolutely careful with NATO. They were very, very careful not to provoke. We can say that the alliance itself is working. Article 45 [partea din Carta ONU care permite „acțiuni militare urgente” dacă statele membre sunt amenințate] it works,” said a British official.

Wallace said the war in Ukraine had “revitalized” NATO, which he said had “stagnant” in previous years.

“After 1991, NATO simply stagnated…Many European countries would be surprised that NATO was a nuclear alliance. They just forgot to talk about it. So, he had no plans to answer the “what ifs.” They just died,” he said.

Wallace says NATO is reviving and believes Russia can be defeated:

“I think [războiul din Ucraina] you can win I think that Russia is much more fragile than the Russians want to admit… The split in the hierarchy of the Russian army is quite real, the number of casualties is terrible.”

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