A former defence minister has called for Britain to intervene militarily in Ukraine as part of a "coalition of the willing".

Sir Gerald Howarth, who served as minister for International Security Strategy between 2010 and 2012, made the comments as evidence apparently showing Vladimir Putin’s soldiers deliberately killing civilians emerged following Russian troops' withdrawal from around the capital Kyiv.

Sir Gerald, who now lives in Chelsworth, said: "We've got to do something, we cannot just carry on like this."

He believes Russian troops are pulling back from Kyiv in order to rearm and resupply before attacking the east of Ukraine in an attempt to cut the country off from its ports on the Black Sea in the south.

Supplying arms would not be enough to stop this, Sir Gerald said. Instead, he called for an "aerial assault" on Russian troops.

He compared the atrocities to the Bosnian War in the mid-1990s, saying there was a "similar level of anger and frustration" at the events.

"We're watching, on our television screens, the most savage butchery – unimaginable in Europe in 2022. And we all seem powerless to do anything about it," he said.

Explaining why he believed Britain should intervene further, he said: "The trouble is that people have been unprepared to think the unthinkable.


"The unthinkable has happened. But are we now prepared to think the unthinkable? No, we're just reacting one day at a time. It needs very serious strategic thinking.

"I fully accept there is a risk here, but what people don't seem to be willing to acknowledge is that there is a risk in doing nothing.

"First and foremost: the expulsion of vast numbers of people from Ukraine, causing a refugee crisis, particularly in the rest of Eastern Europe and the disruption to our economies resulting from it.

"The second risk is that we will be rewarding aggression. And third, rewarding aggression by Putin, which may well lead to further aggression, based on a calculation by him that again we will not respond.

"And the fourth consequence of doing nothing is that there are people around the rest of the world who have territorial ambitions. If they see that we're not even going to respond to this holocaust-quality of behaviour in Ukraine, are we likely to move anywhere else? The world will become a much less safe place."

The Falklands 40 years on

Sir Gerald Howarth was first elected as an MP in Staffordshire in 1983, the year after the Falklands War, on what he described as a "ticket of strong defence".

He said: "The Falklands was the turning point in post-war British history. Because it rescued the United Kingdom from its post-war decline.

"It restored Britain's place in the world. It made people wake up and realise that was once again Britain was a force in the world to be reckoned with.

"It also sent a message – and this is why it is such an important analogy to Ukraine today – around the world that Britain stood ready to uphold its values and therefore, do not mess with us. And as a result, the world became a safer place."