Russia refuses to recognize its fragility: rift in Russian army real, and Russia's losses atrocious – UK Defence Secretary

Ben Wallace, Secretary of State for Defence of the United Kingdom, has said that Russia is "much more fragile than the Russians want to admit".

Source: The Guardian, citing Ben Wallace during the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change conference in London

Details: Wallace said that the war in Ukraine is "winnable".

"I think Russia is much more fragile than the Russians want to admit… The splinter in the hierarchy of the Russian army is very real, the casualty rates are atrocious," Wallace added.

He stressed that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been "very very cautious of respecting NATO’s territory."

The Russians "have been really really cautious to make sure that they don’t provoke. You could argue that the alliance in itself does function. The deterrent of Article 5 functions," Wallace said, referring to the NATO article that provides that if a NATO Ally is the victim of an armed attack, each and every other member of the Alliance will consider this act of violence as an armed attack against all members and will take the actions it deems necessary to assist the Ally attacked.

Wallace also said that the war in Ukraine has seen a "reinvigoration" of NATO after the Alliance’s long "stagnation" period.

Previously: Antony Radakin, Chief of the UK Defence Staff, told Sky News that the UK has been disassembling and studying Russian armoured vehicles captured in Ukraine to learn more about how to counter these weapons.

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