Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, mentioned he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin’s legacy will probably be “isolation”, including that “diplomacy is totally off the desk” at this stage.
He informed BBC Breakfast: “I feel President Putin is slowly however absolutely constructing a wall round himself. He will probably be remoted.
“I feel, you understand, his legacy is just not what he hopes it is going to be. I feel his legacy will probably be isolation.”
He added: “I feel in the mean time diplomacy is totally off the desk. We tried. I went to Moscow, Liz Truss went to Moscow, (the) Prime Minister spoke repeatedly to President Putin and met him on plenty of events, as did virtually each president of, or prime minister of, senior nations within the West.
“So, you understand, I am undecided what extra diplomacy would obtain at this very second in time.”
He added: “I feel it is necessary to have a diplomatic hyperlink, it is necessary for us to present messages to the Kremlin direct.”