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UK defence minister: 'people want to see a bit of gratitude' from Ukraine for weapon supplies
Dan Sabbagh
Dan Sabbagh
Dan Sabbagh is in Vilnius for the Guardian and reports these words from Ben Wallace:

The British defence secretary suggested Ukraine needed to put more emphasis on saying thank you for western help when he was asked about President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s complaints on Tuesday that the country had not been issued a firm timetable or set of conditions for joining Nato.

Ben Wallace said Ukrainians’ haste to get all the help they could meant they did not always say they were grateful for the help received. “Whether we like it or not, people want to see a bit of gratitude,” the minister said at a briefing in the margins of the Nato summit in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius.

“Sometimes you are asking countries to give up their own stocks” of weapons, he said, adding tha making repeated demands from the west could risk alienating some key constituencies. “Sometimes you have to persuade lawmakers on the [Capitol] Hill in America,” he added.

Wallace revealed that he had travelled to Ukraine last year to be presented with a shopping list of weapons. “You know, we’re not Amazon,” he said. “I told them that last year, when I drove 11 hours to be given a list.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/li...08ce64897eac24