The defence secretary warned that the West should prepare itself for “what comes next” as he predicts Vladimir Putin will become more violent in the days to come.
Ben Wallace suggested that as Russian forces are not proceeding through Ukraine at a rate the Kremlin was expecting, due to the strength of the Ukrainian resistance, they will probably re-double their efforts.
He told BBC Breakfast: “This is the overwhelming scale of the Russian federation army up against Ukraine.
“They are behind schedule, they are taking significant casualties and they are feeling public rejection in parts of the Russian system itself.
“We’ve seen many protests. But the Russian handbook is then to get more violent, and commit more forces.
“Because, fundamentally in the Russian doctrine, the lives of their own soldiers matter a lot less than in other armed forces.
“So we have to brace ourselves for what comes next, which could be ruthless, indiscriminate, bombing of cities and the propelling forward of soldiers and high causality levels.
“That’s going to be horrific which again is why it’s important the Putin does see the international community condemn what he’s doing.”
The West is hoping to show Moscow that its actions in Ukraine have left it completely isolated.
Even China, India and the UAE decided to abstain rather than vote against the UN’s Security Council’s draft resolution urging Russia to stop attacking its neighbour.
This means only Russia voted against the resolution, while the 11 remaining members of the Council voted for it.
Wallace also pointed out that Russia’s “only best friend at the moment seems to be Belarus. He claimed this should show Putin that he “is definitely on the wrong side of history here”.
Wallace also explained why he thinks the Russian forces have been relatively unsuccessful during the first few days of the invasion.
The defence secretary said that Putin has “convinced himself” that all Ukrainians were waiting to be liberated by “the great leader of Russia” and so had not prepared for the country’s resistance.
But, Wallace also emphasised that the Russian president is unpredictable, especially as “he thinks invading a sovereign country is acceptable”.
According to the cabinet minister, Putin might not even be fully aware of how his forces are holding up in Ukraine because “as we often see in totalitarian states, people don’t tell him what’s going on”.