United Kingdom defense minister resigns

LONDON, UK

British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace on Thursday confirmed that he was stepping down from his post in a letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Wallace said last month he wanted to resign after four years as defense minister and would quit as a lawmaker at the next national election in order to pursue new opportunities.

The 53-year-old former British army captain was a key figure in leading the UK's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and has been seen by Kyiv as an important ally.

Wallace was appointed defence minister by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2019 after holding junior ministerial posts in earlier governments.

The British government has named former Energy Secretary Grant Shapps as Wallace's successor

In his official resignation letter to Sunak, Wallace praised the progress made by the Defense Ministry and urged the government to maintain its support of it.

"The Ministry of Defence is back on the path to being once again world class with world class people," he wrote.

"I know you agree with me that we must not return to the days where Defence was viewed as a discretionary spend by government and savings were achieved by hollowing out," he added.

Wallace saw himself as a possible successor to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, but Stoltenberg's contract was extended for a further year in light of the current Russian threat to European security.

He is also a popular figure in Ukraine because of his staunch support for Kyiv's fight against the Russian invasion.

However, he did cause some consternation in Kyiv with comments he made at the NATO summit in Lithuania in July, in which he complained that Ukraine was not showing enough gratitude for Western assistance.

His remarks, in which he said Ukraine sometimes treated the West like an "Amazon" warehouse in its demands for weapons, came in response to Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelenskyy's frustration at not being given a firm timetable for joining the Western military alliance.

He later said his remarks had been "misrepresented." 

"He has led by example. His authority has inspired other countries to join in assisting Ukraine," Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Thursday, adding that British military aid "helped us to repel the first wave of Russian aggression, to begin the rearmament of the (army) with NATO-style weapons and to launch an offensive."

In Sunak's letter of response, the prime minister lavished praise on Wallace.

"You have served our country in three of the most demanding posts in government: defence secretary, security minister and Northern Ireland minister," he wrote.

"I fully understand your desire to step down after eight years of exacting ministerial duties.," Sunak wrote.