Ukraine

Alicia Kearns Excerpts

Tuesday 20th December 2022 Commons Chamber

[Alicia Kearns (Rutland and Melton) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend share his assessment of likely Russian military doctrinal changes as we go into next year? Does he believe that Gerasimov has indeed been fired? Will he reassure us that he has been having strong conversations with his Belarusian counterparts following Putin’s visit yesterday, to deter them from becoming combatants in this illegal renewed war?

[Mr Wallace]

I am always happy to speak to my Belarusian counterpart. I have not engaged directly with Belarus—perhaps I should try, and I will. The open source commentary around Gerasimov’s future is matched by open source commentary about the future of other generals, but we can say for sure that the generals around Putin are not in agreement about the success or failure rate of the special operation, and that is causing significant frictions. We will see what the outcome is, but we should be under no illusion that President Putin is still in charge of Russia, and as long as he is, he is determined to drive the special operation along, and we in Europe must stand and resist.