Hello there, I'm Alyssa McCarthy Podcasts.

Hello there, I'm Alicia McCarthy. Thanks for downloading the Yesterday in Parliament podcast.

On Friday the 31st of October, a former head of the British Army says Ukraine is fighting a proxy war on behalf of NATO, but is being denied the means to win. Lord Horton said President

Putin seemed content to grind the war towards a ceasefire, and he warned as long as the Russian

leader remained in power, there'd be a lingering danger. He will see Britain as Americans proxy.

He will have a fully mobilised set of armed forces, an untouched suite of

strategic capabilities, a fully mobilised war economy and a window of opportunity to act,

whilst NATO, certainly the UK at the moment, still prioritises welfare benefits over national

security.

Another former Chief of the Defence Staff and independent peer, Lord Sturip, feared that a ceasefire

would not mean peace.

Russia's attempts to destabilise and undermine NATO will continue, and it will rearm as rapidly

as possible in order to threaten Western security and to attempt to isolate Ukraine.

So we will, at best best have an armed pause,

not peace. The defence minister Lord Koker insisted there'd been no weakening of the government or the British people's resolve to stand up for Ukraine. He said this government had massively

increased backing for the country, including new sanctions,

more aid and military support. And banging the dispatch box, he added,

Democracy and the rules-based international order matter. And that is what is at stake in Ukraine

today. For the Conservatives, Lady Goldie had an equally strong message for President Putin

that the UK had and would always stand up to bullies. But she argued for its part, Ukraine had to

tackle corruption. Without that explicit recognition from Ukraine, there can be no confidence by the

international community that it is worthwhile providing help.

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