Philip Dunne stresses the vital need to maintain the UK’s strategic deterrent as a NATO asset at a time when Putin has attacked nuclear power plants in Ukraine and is threatening to use nuclear weapons.
Philip Dunne (Ludlow) (Con)
T6. Putin has shown that he is prepared to attack nuclear power plants and has threatened to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the importance of maintaining the UK’s strategic deterrent as a NATO asset is all the more vital in these dangerous times? (905952)
Elizabeth Truss (The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs)
My right hon. Friend is right about the reckless actions of President Putin and about the destabilisation and attempted destabilisation of nuclear facilities, which the United Kingdom called out at the UN Security Council. President Putin is trying to distract from his appalling invasion of Ukraine and the fact that it is not going according to plan by resorting to increased rhetoric. We simply should not respond to those threats.