Ukraine latest: 'Putin's political credibility is draining away,' following Wagner negotiations

now Sky News understands that the defense secretary Ben Wallace is considering leaving the cabinet and could potentially stand down as an MP at the next general election Mr Wallace who has played a key role in responding to Russia's invasion of Ukraine was recently overlooked for the role of NATO General Secretary now for more on this I'm joined here in the studio by defense and security analyst Professor Michael Clark um Michael the background to why he was overlooked is quite interesting in itself but what does it mean for the UK's defense policy and positioning because he's a very experienced Pair of Hands yes he is he's been an administrative defense for eight years he's held the fort at a very difficult time taking a very tough line on Ukraine and on modernizing British forces but he's up against the treasury at a time of Economic stringency and so he hasn't got what he needed got a four-year Financial settlement two years ago and he won't get any more and so if he feels his own political career is not going anywhere and he's not going to be a NATO Secretary General which he isn't um then he may well feel that okay it's time to go and do something else yeah I mean it's understandable isn't it um let's shift our attention to Ukraine the president of South Korea has arrived uh what what's going on there what's he doing no there he is yeah president uh June and he's been president since uh summer last year and he was at Vilnius he was at the NATO Summit because NATO Summit also included South Korea Japan Australia New Zealand that's how important that Summit has become in uniting the western world and the G7 so he's in Europe and he makes a visit I understand he's been to Butcher and urban as everyone does as a sort of pilgrimage now for any visitors to go to these places to see the evidence of war crimes very important to the ukrainians in the past you South Korea has said they will only give humanitarian age to Ukraine um and some counter mining demining stuff but actually most of us believe they've been giving a lot of shells 155 millimeter artillery shells which the ukrainians really need and this week The Economist said that what we've all believed that they've been giving them shells American shells which would otherwise go to South Korea because the Russians are firing off 40 000 shells a day the ukrainians are firing off about 15 to 20 000 shells a day they desperately need them and I think South Korea has played a bigger role for Ukraine than most people until this week were prepared to admit a lot of things that go on uh sort of under the radar um meanwhile two weeks ago we were talking about the march on Moscow it looked like there could have even been a coup with the Wagner troops uh advancing on Moscow it was all fizzled out and now we understand that Putin had meetings with senior leaders of Wagner what is all this telling us about the power dynamics yeah I mean Putin's political credibility is draining away we know we know for certain now in his own words that he met Wagner people pregojin and 35 Wagner fighters in the Kremlin on the 29th of June which was only five four days after the attempted coup and he was negotiating with them and he didn't even get what he wanted out of them and so Wagner still in existence they have still informed units in South in southern Ukraine they're not fighting because they withdrew from the fighting after back much to reorganize they're carrying on reorganizing some of them have gone to um Belarus to azi provichi which is this area in Belarus Prince but very few of them nobody quite knows what Wagner going to do meanwhile these people are emerging as the winners of this chaos this man is doing and here's the on the left there he's the governor of two and he's a sort of pragmatist a lot of people look to him as the sensible view while Putin is is seems to be declining people are looking to do him and because he gets on with everybody he has been in the security services he has been in the ministry of Defense he's now a very able man and the other man is zolotov man we saw her a bit earlier on zolotov is the head of the internal Force the rostvadia who are the Home Defense Forces and he was loyal to Putin when other people's loyalty was not so obvious and so doomin and zolotov are the two there's zolotov uh doominusolotov are the two winners out of this chaos but meanwhile the Wagner opera goes on and you know Wagner named after Richard Wagner the composer and I think you know Wagner itself is taking that he's taking itself to their own personal gotta damarung very long operas aren't they yeah Twilight of the Gods indeed all right um Michael cultured and comprehensive as ever thank you very much

Channel: Sky News

Views: 663,927

Keywords: RUSSIA, PUTIN, UKRAINE, WAR, WAGNER, SKY NEWS

Id: pxSxJnTRYPY

Length: 4min 30sec (270 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 15 2023