Mr Wallace, who has served as Defence Secretary since July 2019, is no stranger to the threat of war and the consequences of its aftermath. Only recently, he oversaw Operation Pitting, the UK’s effort to rescue 15,000 people from Afghanistan.
The mission was personal for Mr Wallace, a former Scots Guardsman. In one interview during the height of the airlift, he broke down in tears as he admitted that “some people will be left behind” following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.
Today, it is this fear of people being killed if war breaks out between Russia and Ukraine that plays on his mind.
“My biggest fear is that President Putin miscalculates and it leads to a massive loss of life on all sides of the country,” Mr Wallace said.
The concern of miscalculation is that Mr Putin “thinks either he could get away with this, or that he thinks the Ukrainians won’t fight, or that he thinks this somehow strengthens Russian security, rather than the fact making more people anxious and therefore more people taking security steps, that escalates”.
Mr Wallace added that “as in 2014, any invasion would have the opposite of the desired effect”.
