Lord David Cameron turned to the history books to attack Vladimir Putin during a speech at the UN General Assembly. 

“If we do not stand up to Putin, he will be back for more,” the foreign secretary said. 

Lord Cameron continually referred to history throughout his speech – something Vladimir Putin frequently does when discussing his “special military operation” in Ukraine.  

“It is a tragedy that Putin prefers to hark back to the ninth century to justify aggression,” he said in an apparent nod to the lengthy historical justification for invading Ukraine the Russian leader gave Tucker Carlson in a recent interview. 

Lord Cameron then pointed to several occasions in more recent history the Russian state had the opportunity to raise concerns about the “threat” that Ukraine supposedly poses Moscow. 

“Prior to 2014, did Ukraine pose a threat to Russia? No. 

“Did Russia object to the formation of the Ukrainian state in 1991? No. 

“Did it [object] in 1994 when signing the Budapest Memorandum? No,” he said.

“In fact, Russia pledged never to use force against Ukraine.”

He then turned to wider implications of the conflict. 

“Putin tries to claim that Russia is fighting not against Ukraine, but against the whole of the West. He claims we are out to somehow to dismember Russia. That is the central lie of this war.”

He said he and other world leaders have been trying to better ties with Moscow over the last decade. 

Again, referencing history, Lord Cameron said “Putin could easily apply his distortions of history elsewhere, such as Moldova or the Baltic States, and others will be emboldened to turn to fighting when it suits them”. 

He labelled the Russian president as “a neo-imperialist bully who believes that might is right”, before concluding: “Ukraine’s fight is our fight, the world’s fight, and the world must stay strong”.