At UN Assembly new British PM, Liz Truss, slams Russia’s President Putin

The new British Prime Minister Liz Truss has claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had used “sabre-rattling threats” to cover up his botched invasion of Ukraine.

She also claimed that the UN’s core ideals were being undermined by authoritarian states’ aggression.

In her first address to the UN general assembly on Wednesday night, Truss praised the late Queen Elizabeth II as a symbol of all the UN stands for and described the conflict in Ukraine as a struggle for “our ideals and the security of the whole world.”

Truss accused Putin of “desperately trying to justify his disastrous failures” in response to Putin’s assertion that he was calling up reserve soldiers and would use all available means to defend Russia, which was apparently a reference to his nuclear arsenal.

“He is doubling down by sending even more reservists to a terrible fate,” she said. “He is desperately trying to claim the mantle of democracy for a regime without human rights or freedoms. And he is making yet more bogus claims and sabre-rattling threats.

“This will not work. The international alliance is strong – Ukraine is strong,” said Truss, who addressed the UN on the same day Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke to the global gathering by video.

Read also:British PM, Liz Truss, appoints Nigeria’s Kemi Badenoch into cabinet

In a speech outlining her view of foreign policy in a world turned upside down by Russia’s invasion, Truss spoke of the Queen, whose funeral was attended by many of the world leaders now gathered at the United Nations.

She said the Queen “symbolised the postwar values on which this organisation was founded”. She said the monarch, who died this month after 70 years on the throne, “transcended difference and healed division”.

Truss also called for a toughening of the West’s response to Russia’s invasion, while urging sanctions on Russia and said “the G7 and our like-minded partners should act as an economic Nato”, supporting countries targeted by “the economic aggression of authoritarian regimes”.

She urged nations to find alternatives to Russian oil and gas and protect supply chains for everything from food to minerals.

“The Free World needs this economic strength and resilience to push back against authoritarian aggression and win this new era of strategic competition,” she said.

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