West could do more to support Ukraine, says former British defense secretary

Western countries could and should do more to support Ukraine, Former UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said at an event in Chatham House, The Telegraph reported.

Wallace called on NATO countries to continue funding Ukraine in response to questions about what the West can do to help Kyiv.

"Never stop helping Ukraine militarily with equipment and training people – whatever you need to do to defeat Putin. That’s the best way to spend your defence money right now, is spending in Ukraine," Wallace added.

The former minister also believes that allies could do more in terms of training in Ukraine, emphasizing that the defense industry needs to accelerate the production of weapons.

"We all could have done. The penny should have dropped in Europe that there is a war on in Europe and we need to go to a sort of war footing," he said.

However, he warned against focusing too much on individual weapon systems, such as the Storm Shadow missiles, as a "magic" weapon capable of turning the tide of the war.

"We get too hooked up on totemic individual weapons systems. The totemic debate around giving Ukraine permission to fire Storm Shadow missiles inside Russia did more harm than good. Because it exposed Western splits," Wallace said.

On December 8, Donald Trump suggested that Ukraine might not receive as much aid from the U.S. after his inauguration.

On December 9, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine would discuss with the French side the preparation of a second brigade.