Andrew Marr: Could the UK antagonise Russia further by sending more weapons to Ukraine?
10 January 2023, 18:10 | Updated: 10 January 2023, 18:11
With the UK deliberating on whether to send more tanks to Ukraine, Andrew Marr has questioned whether the move risks embroiling the government in a wider war with Russia.
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Speaking on Tonight with LBC, Andrew said that more weaponry from the UK, the US and Germany would "make a huge difference" - but warned of the danger of "escalation" in a war that has largely remained confined within the borders of Ukraine.
"Tonight the Government’s trying to work out whether to send about a dozen sophisticated British Challenger 2 tanks to help Ukraine," the presenter said.
"The Americans are sending their armoured vehicles and the Germans are too, while still agonising about sending their Leopard tanks. Challengers and Leopards would make make a huge difference to Ukraine but is there a danger of escalation, of crossing a fine line between support and deeper involvement which could lead to a wider war?
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Andrew Marr: How far should the West go in helping Ukraine with the means of attack?
He added: "The Russians, completely predictably, tried to sound as menacing as possible.
"Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Russian Security Council, and influential with Putin, said: 'The events in Ukraine are not a clash between Moscow and Kyiv – this is a military Confrontation between Russia and NATO and above all the United States and Britain…", who were, he said, planning to pull Russia apart and wipe it off the political map of the world.
Andrew went on: "Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman said he agreed that western countries were part of the conflict - “de facto they have already become an indirect party to this conflict, pumping Ukraine with weapons, technologies, intelligence information and so on.”
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So how far should the West go in helping Ukraine, not with defensive weapons but with the means of attack? A little later in the show we will be hearing from Barbara Woodward, Britain’s permanent representative, or ambassador Dash at the United Nations, and hearing why the German government is so nervous. but first, one of the key figures urging Rishi Sunak to send not a dozen tanks, but many more: I'm joined now Lord Dannatt, Richard Dannatt, the former chief of the General Staff….
