Liz Truss is having a good war

Liz Truss gave a striking statement in the Commons this afternoon on the action the government was taking to respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It contrasted to the approach taken by some of her colleagues, because it contained a number of admissions about the impact of this action.

For the first time, the Foreign Secretary stated that Britain would ‘have to undergo some economic hardship as a result of our sanctions’. This has been implicit over the past few days, but Truss was the first to say it clearly. She added that ‘our hardships are nothing compared to those endured by the people of Ukraine’, and also warned that the war could last months or years. But her statement was not a downbeat one: she underlined that Putin had made a miscalculation in assuming Ukraine would be easy to conquer. The bar was set high for western success, saying ‘Putin must lose’ because if he managed to invade a sovereign country without consequences, it could happen anywhere.