'We Kicked Russia's Ass Before, We Can Do It Again,' Says U.K. Defense Minister
“We kicked Russia’s backside before, we can do it again,” said U.K. Defense Minister Ben Wallace during a press conference on February 24.
Wallace was referring to the British victories over Russia in Crimea during the 1853 Crimean War. At the time, Britain was the world’s preeminent naval power, whose fleet proved potent in the war.
“The Scots Guards kicked the backside of Tsar Nicholas I in 1853 in Crimea, we can always do it again,” Wallace elaborated.
Crimea remains a sensitive topic between Russia and the U.K, occasionally sparking diplomatic spats between the two countries.
In July 2021, Russia warned the U.K. not to sail near Crimea ever again or else their sailors would get hurt.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and now claims the waters around it. Most countries, including the U.K., continue to recognize the peninsula as Ukrainian.
U.K. Says Putin Could Deploy Mobile Crematoriums to Hide Casualties
In the same briefing room, Wallace told reporters Russia could resort to similar tactics it used in the past to hide its losses in war. One of those tactics is deploying a mobile crematorium to follow soldiers in the battlefield and immediately cremate them in case they are killed.
“Previously they’ve deployed mobile crematoriums to follow troops around the battlefield, which in anyone’s book is chilling,” Wallace said during the press briefing as reported by the Telegraph.
“If I was a soldier and knew that my generals had so little faith in me that they followed me around the battlefield with a mobile crematorium, or I was the mother or father of a son, potentially deployed into a combat zone, and my government thought that the way to cover up loss was mobile crematorium, I’d be deeply, deeply worried.”
