British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace caused some surprise on Wednesday by declaring in Vilnius that Ukraine should show more gratitude for Western military support and stop treating allies as “Amazon”.
“Like it or not, people like to see gratitude,” Wallace said at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, noting that Ukraine was trying to convince several countries to make their weapons reserves available.
In comments quoted by various British ‘media’, including The Times of London, The Guardian and The Independent, Wallace said he heard “complaints” from MPs on Capitol Hill (Congress) in Washington, in which he used the phrase “we are not Amazon”.
“It’s true,” said the minister.
“I told them last July. I told the Ukrainians when I traveled 11 hours to deliver a list, ‘I’m not an Amazon,'” he continued.
Max Blain, spokesman for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, downplayed the minister’s comments.
“I think you’ve heard the president repeatedly [ucraniano, Volodymyr] Zelensky today refers to his gratitude to the people of the United Kingdom for their support and generosity,” the spokesman said, adding that “the government and people of the United Kingdom will continue to strongly support Ukraine”..
Source: DN
