Russian president Vladimir Putin wants sovereignty not territory, a Conservative former leader has said, as he argued Donald Trump is making a “completely wrong judgement” if he thinks otherwise.
The Prime Minister should tell the US president that if they “fail” on Ukraine, the world will be vulnerable to totalitarian states, Sir Iain Duncan Smith told the Commons.
It comes as Sir Keir Starmer is currently in Washington seeking a US “backstop” to any future European reassurance force in a post-war Ukraine.
During a debate on Ukraine, Sir Iain said: “The idea that just meeting Putin’s demand for territory – that he may have got or not – at the moment somehow will appease him and will satisfy his requirements is, I think, a completely wrong judgement.
“I noticed in a telephone call between President Trump and Putin this is what President Trump said was important. The truth is Putin is an ex-KGB man. Once KGB, always KGB.
“He’s not interested in territory, he’s interested in sovereignty.”
He added: “What we have to get lined up in here is the real nature of what Putin wants, and it’s not territory, it’s sovereignty.
“He wants to recreate and has always wanted to recreate the full borders of the old Soviet Union in a greater Russia, we know that. And Ukraine isn’t about 20% of their territory, for him it’s all of Ukraine.
“So you have a peace deal which isn’t stable, he will be back.
“He’ll build up his armed forces, which he can do quite quickly now with the support of people like North Korea, and he will be back in double quick time.”
Sir Iain said he agreed with the US that “the West has ridden on the coat tails of the United States for far too long”.
He also said Ukraine is important to America “in a way sometimes I don’t think they fully understand” and urged the Prime Minister to tell Donald Trump that “if we fail on this then it opens the world again to the rule of totalitarian states who will come again and again”.
Sir Iain later said that the “road to Taiwan runs through Ukraine”, adding: “In that area around Taiwan, 72% of everything produced today in the world, is made there. You tell me that’s not as important as Kent is to the United Kingdom, it’s exactly the same.”
Elsewhere in his speech, Sir Iain said the UK has “a lot to learn” from Ukraine on prosthetics.
He added: “They are making advances in prosthetics that we simply couldn’t have believed were feasible.”