France and Germany could be doing more to help Ukraine defend itself against the Russian invasion, a UK minister has said.
Oliver Dowden, a minister without portfolio who also serves as chairman of the Conservative Party, told the BBC on Sunday that the West needs to “continue to tighten the ratchet on Russia” as Moscow appears to be determined to “keep on going and going.”
Dowden also called for more Western support for Ukraine, telling Sky News that Prime Minister Boris Johnson is “engaging on precisely that point.”
Mentioning Johnson’s call earlier this week with U.S. President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, and leaders of Germany and other countries, Dowden said, “There is a desire for us all to do it but it would be good to see more from France and Germany as well.”
Britain has emerged as one of Ukraine’s closest allies in its resistance against Russian invasion.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told a press conference in Kyiv on Saturday that the UK, along with the United States, was supplying the “biggest military aid” to his country.
In a phone call earlier on Saturday, he personally thanked Boris Johnson for supplying British armoured vehicles to his country and offering training on home soil to Ukrainian troops on how to use them.
Meanwhile, Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of the Ukrainian city Melitopol, said many countries “closed their eyes” to the situation in Ukraine after the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
When asked on Times Radio if he would have liked to have seen more help from the West prior to the invasion, he said the world’s understanding of the situation in Ukraine between 2014 and February this year was the “greatest mistake” and that many countries made “huge business with the Russian Federation.”
According to a former UK defence chief, even Britain was among the countries that made such mistakes.
Michael Fallon, who served as defence secretary under former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, accused previous Downing Street operations of being reluctant to support Kyiv in the aftermath of the annexation of Crimea.
Fallon told The Sunday Times that the Ministry of Defence wanted “to do more” to help Ukraine upgrade its defences, but he was told to turn down Kyiv’s requests for assistance.
“We were stymied and we were blocked in Cabinet from sending the Ukrainians the arms they needed,” Fallon told the newspaper.
“Some in the Cabinet felt extremely strongly that we should do nothing to further provoke Russia,” he said, adding: “I felt that was absurd. The Russians didn’t need any provoking. They were already there, sending people across the border.”
