Liz Truss made the statement in Warsaw on Tuesday, Poland's PAP news agency reported.
Meeting reporters alongside Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, Truss thanked Poland for being “at the frontline of helping Ukraine.”
She also stated: “Poland has always been clear-eyed about Russia. You have understood Putin’s malign intent. You were right.”
More sanctions
Truss said that the West’s coordinated sanctions were “pushing the Russian economy back to the Soviet era.”
“But we can and we must do more,” she emphasised.
She told reporters she would urge Britain's NATO and G7 partners this week to go further by “banning Russian ships from our ports, cracking down on more Russian banks, going after industries that are filling Putin’s war chest, like gold, and agreeing a clear timetable to eliminate imports of Russian oil, coal and gas.”
Holding Russia accountable for Bucha atrocities
Truss also called for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to investigate Russia’s “heinous crimes” in Ukraine's Bucha, and said London was providing assistance for the International Criminal Court’s probe into the atrocities.
“We will hold those responsible to account for what they’ve done, in particular the reports of rape and sexual assault,” she stated.
Boosting NATO’s eastern flank
Truss announced: “We’re putting more UK forces into Poland as well as more broadly across the eastern flank because we do need to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank, and that’s what we’ll be talking about at the foreign ministers’ meeting later this week.”
‘Grateful for Britain’s support’
Meanwhile, Poland’s Rau thanked Britain “for its support and for boosting our security” at a time when the Russian invasion of Ukraine “is taking an increasingly bloody toll.”
He noted that some 700 UK troops were already stationed in Poland.
Rau said he would join Truss in calling for a further strengthening of NATO’s eastern flank, adding that Poland and the UK were “in favour of harsh sanctions against Russia.”
He told reporters that "Russia’s conduct of the war in Ukraine was barbaric,” costing the lives of thousands of civilians, including children.
Rau called for Russia to be “isolated on the international stage, punished and held accountable for its war crimes.”
He warned that unless the Kremlin regime was stopped, it could “commit further acts of aggression in the near future.”
He also said that Russia must pay for "all the damage it is causing to Ukraine.”
Tuesday was day 41 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Poland on Tuesday reported it had welcomed 2.5 million refugees fleeing Russia's attack on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP