THE father of the man who died on the MH17 flight which was shot down by pro-Russian separatists, has said the invasion of Ukraine is Putin “flexing his muscles” and the Russian president won’t “listen to anybody.”
Late last week Barry Sweeney, from Longbenton in Newcastle, called on Russia’s president to end the aggression asking how he would feel “losing his daughter the same way”.
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Mr Sweeney’s son, Liam Sweeney, 28, was one of the 283 passengers on the Malaysia Airlines flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, that was shot down on July 17, 2014, while flying over Eastern Ukraine.
The flight was brought down by a Buk surface-to-air missile launched from pro-Russia separatist-controlled territory in Ukraine and all 283 passengers and 15 crew members were killed.
It was announced today that Russian president had recognised the independence of two Russian-controlled territories in east Ukraine and has sent his military on a “peacekeeping mission” to Ukraine.
Russia’s military is likely to then make a formal entrance into the territories soon.
Mr Sweeney said that no one can “bully” Putin and the west “were trying to pacify him” but “he’s not going to be bullied.”
He added: “I think he’s already decided, but I know they’re on about sanctions again, but is he going to listen, hopefully, he will, I know he’s flexing his muscles at the moment.
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“And I’ve said it before but I think that Russia has actually come back bigger than they were with the soviet union.
“They’re probably trying to get back to that situation where they had the iron curtain.
The Boris Johnson has said that the UK has imposed sanctions on Russian banks and three high-net-worth individuals.
But Mr Sweeney feels that this won’t do much to help the situation.
He said: “The sanctions imposed by the UK probably aren’t going to help, but the stupid thing is, it’s not really the Russian people.
“When you put sanctions in you’re sort of having a go against the wrong people, the Russian people are probably as nice as us.
“You go back to Nazis Germany, it wasn’t the people’s fault it was the rulers.
“I might be wrong, I’m not a politician and I’m not trying to say I’m better than anyone else, but I feel as though he wants to do what he wants to do and he’s going to do it regardless.”
When asked if the escalated tensions could result in a similar incident as MH17, Mr Sweeney said he “would like to think not.”
Mr Sweeney added: “I think that because of what happened with MH17, it did stop what was going to happen back then, and Covid was another situation that delayed things.
“But I think Putin is going to do what he wants to do and he doesn’t really care what the rest of us think.
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“There’s a lot of dictators knocking about at the moment, in our country we do have diplomacy and democracy.
“People can choose what they want, but unfortunately in these other countries they can’t and they’re told what to do."
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