Ukraine LIVE: Putin terror as Kremlin launches nuclear-capable weapons in the Baltic

Vladimir Putin could still use “brutality” to win the war in Ukraine, the Defence Secretary has said.

Speaking at the Defence of Europe conference at King’s College London (KCL), Ben Wallace said Russia’s “battle-winning components” of technology, leadership and intelligence had all failed.

He said: “There is one component he still has in his back pocket, which we should really worry about, which is brutality.

“If you win your war by killing, murdering, raping, bombing civilian territories, breaching all human rights, all Geneva Conventions, corruption, and that becomes the battle-winning component, the message that sends around the world to other adversaries around the world is incredibly dangerous.

“That you don’t need to have all the best kit or the best training or appropriate rule of law, you just need to be able to be more brutal than the other person and more prepared to destroy everything in your path.”