London, Feb 27 : The Russian military assault on Ukraine “could well be the beginning of the end” for President Vladimir Putin, UK Foreign Secretary Lizz Truss said on Sunday. Speaking to the Trevor Phillips programme on Sky News, Truss said: “We are seeing strong and brave Ukrainian resistance” and the UK would “continue to supply them with weapons and economic support”. She said she believed Putin was “making a strategic mistake” given the damage western sanctions would do to the Russian economy, the BBC reported.
However, she suggested the war could drag on for “a number of years”, adding: “This is not going to be – I fear – over quickly.” “I fear this conflict could be very very bloody,” the BBC quoted her as saying. When asked about UK sanctions, Truss said she had “compiled a hit list of oligarchs” and suggested there would be “a rolling programme of sanctions”. The war in Ukraine will inflict an “economic cost” on the UK, she said. However, she said, the “British people will understand the price we would pay if we don’t stand up to Putin now”.
With agency inputs
