UK foreign secretary says Ukraine isn’t ‘a Hollywood movie,’ more support needed

The most humane and efficient way of ending the war in Ukraine in a quicker timeframe is to give Kyiv more military support, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told the Atlantic Council in a live-streamed discussion Tuesday.

During his talk on Britain’s role in an increasingly adversarial world, Cleverly focused on the Ukraine war and how to counter Russia in the global arena.

“We are now in a period of heightened risk and volatility that is likely to last beyond the 2030s,” said the UK’s Integrated Review, released in March as an update to the strategy document from 2021.

“In that time, the transition into a multipolar, fragmented and contested world has happened more quickly and definitively than anticipated,” it said.

Quoting a saying by a British politician, Cleverly said “the worst fight is an even and fair fight because it drags on and there’s an increased amount of damage and deaths.” He said that is why the UK government has been vocal about more military support to Ukraine.

“We have said we will constantly keep under review what Ukraine needs to be successful in self-defense. We will look at how they defend themselves, how they push back against that aggression, how they retake land.”

Cleverly said the West needs recognize that there might not be a simple, quick and decisive breakthrough for the Ukrainians to win the war.

He said they have to keep looking at opportunities to enhance and speed up the support they give to Ukraine.

“I’m not going to speculate about exactly what nature that would be, particularly ahead of what is likely to be a counteroffensive this spring. The one thing I would say of course is that this isn't a film. In films, it's really, really easy.”

Cleverly said their allies have to act quickly and lend material support to Kyiv.

“If we’re saving stuff up for a rainy day, this is the rainy day. And when a permanent member of the UN Security Council invades its neighbor, that is an issue that is so fundamental to our international security architecture that we need to respond, and we need to respond robustly.”

“We have to be realistic. This is the real world. This is not a Hollywood movie. Things are complicated. Things are messy. Things are difficult. Things will get scary. We will expect to hear escalatory words coming out of Vladimir Putin's lips. We need to be ready for that. We need to have this resolved, to continue to do the right thing.”

He said in movies, a nation would be invaded, which would then be followed by an international outcry and eventually a counteroffensive would solve the whole issue.

“It’s a lovely ending, (but) the real world doesn't work like that.”

“Our view is that Ukraine has to be successful, has to be victorious. And the most humane way of doing that, for them to be victorious quickly, is to give them the tools that they need to get the job done and give them those tools in the here and now.”