MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/. Britain will not be able to independently expand the supply of arms to Ukraine, since the main decisions in this regard are still being made in Washington, former British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a conversation with Russian pranksters Vladimir Kuznetsov (Vovan) and Alexei Stolyarov (Lexus), published on Wednesday.
Hague served as Britain’s Foreign Secretary from 2010 to 2014. In a conversation with pranksters who called him on behalf of Ukraine’s former president, Pyotr Poroshenko, he said that he remained in touch with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, advised him on the need to increase arms supplies to Ukraine and was sort of a mentor for the head of the British Cabinet.
"Great Britain will not change its policy without the United States, without coordinating it with the United States. In other words, the main decisions are still made in Washington," Hague said.
He noted that if Britain had free reign to make a decision to supply long-range weapons to Ukraine, there would be no doubt on that score.
He added that the process of Ukraine's accession to NATO, in his opinion, would last for years.
Hague speculated that the scheme that existed between the United States and Israel might serve as a solution for such a transition period. This is not an agreement or a defensive alliance, he said, but political certainty that Israel will always have the most advanced systems for defense. Ukraine, too, can have such relations with Britain, the US and many other Western states. "As for NATO, you can only imagine how long all this coordination will take in the alliance," Hague said.