Sir Robert Buckland blasts Putin as 'weak' and 'an animal ready to lash out'

Sir Robert made the remarks in the interview with the Adver about the deteriorating situation in Ukraine.

On Monday, President Putin announced the Kremlin would formally recognise regions in the country held by Russian Separatists and has deployed ‘peacekeeping’ troops to the areas, which have been fought over for eight years.
As a result, the UK government has announced that it will bring economic sanctions against Russia.

Sir Robert said Mr Putin was in a weak position and if conflict increased the Russian army faced a long-protracted struggle.

“We are a very crucial moment; my worry is that Putin is in a weak position. If he goes ahead with an invasion, he faces a long and protracted struggle in Ukraine," he said.

“The people of Ukraine, even the Russian speakers are against Russia more than they were. But if Putin does nothing, that might be perceived as a weakness at home and therefore I think he’s in a corner. But cornered animals tend to lash out.”

Vladimir Putin has violated Ukrainian sovereignty and international law.

We will immediately institute a package of sanctions targeting Russian economic interests.

It's absolutely vital that the conquest of a European country should not succeed and that Putin should fail. pic.twitter.com/ojccvMWqtY

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) February 22, 2022

“The people of Russia will suffer as a result of illegal aggression against a sovereign state, Sir Robert claimed.

“Putin's extraordinary and worrying speech shows that he is not interested in upholding Russia's international obligations. 

“To call this incursion "peacekeeping" is Orwellian doublespeak.”

Putin’s Orwellian doublespeak fools no-one. He is unilaterally redrawing the map of Europe. He has no respect for Ukraine. In fact, he doesn’t believe in its right to exist.

— Robert Buckland (@RobertBuckland) February 22, 2022

The former justice secretary said, Mr Putin was ‘jealous’ and ‘frightened’ by the economic progress that the Ukrainians had made, which he claimed was the reason for Russian aggression.

“There is no doubt that he is worried about how the Russian people view that," he said.

“He has presided over a kleptocracy, where we have seen the theft of billions of pounds worth of assets belonging to the people of the Russian elite.

“This is a dictatorship that has no accountability and people are increasingly seeing him for what he is.

“We need to remain united; we need to be firm, and we need to remind Vladimir Putin, that the consequences of illegal invasion will result in the most draconian sanctions that he will have ever seen.

“The message has to be clear; Russia will suffer if it takes this unlawful aggressive action.”

At present, the Russian Federation is believed to have 190,000 troops stationed on Ukraine’s borders, with tanks and other heavy artillery in support.