UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace Resigns, Grant Shapps Takes His Place
15:28 31.08.2023 (Updated: 19:11 31.08.2023)
© AFP 2023 SIMON WOHLFAHRT
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Former energy secretary Grant Shapps has been appointed as the new defense secretary of the UK, he wrote on social media platform X, shortly after Wallace announced his resignation.
UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace on Thursday tendered his resignation to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, ending a nearly four-year stint as country’s top defense official.
In his resignation letter, Wallace said that it was time for him "to invest in the parts of life" that he had neglected, and to explore new opportunities.
“I know you agree with me that we must not return to the days where Defense was viewed as a discretionary spend by the Government and savings were achieved by hollowing out,” he warned Sunak.
Wallace had already indicated his intention to quit as the defense secretary last month.
The outgoing defense secretary highlighted that the UK's “response” to the Ukraine conflict was one of the key events of his stint.
"You have served our country with distinction," Sunak said.
According to House of Common records, its defense commitments to Ukraine have totalled to nearly $6 billion. The UK is also hosting a training scheme called ‘Operation Interflex’ to train 30,000 new and existing Ukrainian security personnel, an official statement said.
The US by far remains the biggest military aid supplier to the Volodymyr Zelensky regime, having pledged almost $44 billion in military assistance to Kiev since last year.
Agent 006 Leaves the Battlefield in Disgrace: Russian MFA
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, commenting on Wallace's resignation, has accused the former UK defense secretary of delivering depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine that led to radiation contamination of the soil.
"Let's bid farewell to the character who was responsible for contaminating Ukrainian soil by delivering depleted uranium munitions. Agent 006 has left the battlefield in disgrace," the spokeswoman said in her Telegram channel.
Bellow are a set of interesting facts to know about Agent 006.
Wallace Admitted NATO Allies Had Plotted Proxy War in Ukraine
In mid-July, Wallace acknowledged that the UK and its allies had been building Ukraine's military capability long before the conflict started.
"Ultimately culturally it is accepted that Ukraine will join NATO. When that happens is either condition-based... Also, before this invasion, Britain with Sweden, Canada, the United States were investing in Ukraine and building their capabilities," Wallace said at a news conference during the NATO summit in Vilnius.
Wallace Described Ukraine Hostilities as 'Battle Laboratory' for UK Military
The Russian tanks captured in the special military operation zone were being picked apart at Porton Down, British Chief of Defence Staff Tony Radakin revealed in mid-July.
The UK experts apparently hoped to figure out on a “really forensic level” how to better defend themselves from the Russian military workmanship.
Providing his perspective, outgoing UK defense chief Ben Wallace described the crisis in Ukraine as a “battle laboratory” for the British military.
Staunch Supporter of 'More Arms' Approach, Wallace Slammed Zelensky's Shopping List at NATO Summit
Wallace has known to be strong supporter of continued military assistance to Ukraine.
He said last month that the UK had supplied Kiev forces with almost 15 times more artillery shells that it had planned a year ago.
Under Wallace’s stewardship, the UK has also delivered nearly five million anti-personnel weapons to Ukrainian forces, including mortars and grenades.
Wallace also confirmed in a statement to the House of Commons in May that the UK had delivered Storm Shadow missiles with “long-range conventional precision strike capability” to Kiev.
However, Wallace has at times also echoed frustration among NATO allies over Kiev’s unending “shopping list” for weapons.
At the NATO Summit in Vilnius last month, Wallace urged Zelensky to be more grateful for the continued military support it was receiving from the transatlantic alliance than complaining about paucity of arms.
“We are not Amazon,” Wallace had told a press conference at the NATO Summit.
A House of Commons briefing document said this month that there were “fears among some allies that the provision of increasingly more sophisticated weaponry could escalate the conflict”.
Wallace for NATO Chief?
In June, reports emerged that Benn Wallace was running for the top NATO job.
After Norway's Jens Stoltenberg stepped down last autumn, political figures from across Europe were jockeying to replace him. And British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was reportedly lobbying US President Joe Biden to back Wallace to fill the former Norwegian PM's boots as the public face of the military bloc.
However, Washington allegedly had reservations about Wallace, with some in the military unhappy with the way he has set the pace on the Ukraine issue.
