The UK Defence Secretary has accused Vladimir Putin of going “full tonto” over Ukraine and compared him to Tsar Nicholas I during the Crimean War.
In off-camera comments Ben Wallace said his old regiment, the Scots Guards, had “kicked the backside” of the tsar in the Crimea and “we can always do it again”.
The jingoistic comments came as the Cabinet minister chatted with serving military personnel at the Horse Guards building in Westminster.
He said: “It’s going to be a busy Army. Unfortunately we’ve got a busy adversary now in Putin, who has gone full tonto.”
Wallace said the UK has 1,000 personnel on stand-by to respond to the crisis, adding: “The Scots Guards kicked the backside of Tsar Nicholas I in 1853 in Crimea – we can always do it again.”
He continued: “Tsar Nicholas I made the same mistake Putin did, he had no friends, no alliances.”
The comments came as Ukraine declared a nationwide state of emergency lasting 30 days amid fears of a broader Russian invasion, the country’s national security council has decided.
Top security official Oleksiy Danilov said the state of emergency would cover all Ukrainian regions except Donetsk and Luhansk - which were declared independent states by Russia this week.
The US, the UK and European leaders imposed sanctions on Russian banks and billionaires after President Putin ordered “peacekeeping” troops into Ukraine’s separatist Donetsk and Luhansk regions, just hours after he recognised them as independent.
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