{"id":235069,"date":"2025-02-09T12:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-02-09T12:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/09\/former-tory-mp-speaks-from-ukraine-after-joining-military-following-end-of-political-career\/"},"modified":"2025-02-09T12:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-02-09T12:23:09","slug":"former-tory-mp-speaks-from-ukraine-after-joining-military-following-end-of-political-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/09\/former-tory-mp-speaks-from-ukraine-after-joining-military-following-end-of-political-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Tory MP speaks from Ukraine after joining military following end of political career"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“If Ukraine falls\u2026 we know what happens next”, former Tory MP Jack Lopresti tells Trevor Phillips from Kyiv.<\/p>\n

Less than a year ago, he was the parliamentary representative for Filton and Bradley Stoke near Bristol – now he is working with the Ukrainian military.<\/p>\n

Mr Lopresti is a former reservist soldier, although plays down his time in Afghanistan when asked.<\/p>\n

Ukraine war latest: Trump says Putin wants dying to stop<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

But he has returned to his past way of life after leaving politics behind.<\/p>\n

“The last time I spoke in the House of Commons, I said that the defence of the UK began in Ukraine<\/strong><\/a>,” Mr Lopresti – who says he prefers being called Jack (short for Giacomo) – told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“And I’ve been coming here for two years now, regularly helping with charities to work with defence manufacturers in my previous constituency.<\/p>\n

“And about a year ago, I thought to myself, well, you know, politics looks difficult for us as a party at the moment, to say the least, and if I were not re-elected, then I’d come out here and do whatever I could to help. And I knew in the back of my mind that more than likely I would end up in the military, which is where I am.”<\/p>\n

This is a somewhat different path than that taken by many former politicians – who tend to revert to careers as lawyers, lobbyists or talking heads.<\/p>\n

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\n Jack Lopresti, the former Tory MP, has joined the Ukrainian military
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Read more:
Does Germany need to be war ready?<\/a>
Trump envoy calls for Ukraine election after ceasefire<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Lopresti says Ukrainians are not just fighting for their own survival and freedom – but that is also “our” battle, referring to the UK’s support for Kyiv.<\/p>\n

“If Ukraine falls, if we fail here, then we know [Putin] won’t stop. So, you know, this is a battle for Europe.<\/p>\n

“And if Putin succeeds, it is a green light for dictators everywhere.”<\/p>\n

The former MP goes on: “I cannot reiterate that enough really – if Ukraine falls, that we know what comes next. Estonia, Poland, Lithuania, a war with NATO. Perhaps the Chinese will look and say, actually, these guys won’t fight, so we’ll move on Taiwan.<\/p>\n

“You know, this is a must win. And that’s what I’m motivated by.”<\/p>\n

Since Donald Trump’s election as US president last year, there has been talk about whether talks to end the war will begin.<\/p>\n

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\n The situation in Ukraine as of 9 February 2025
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Overnight, Mr Trump said he had spoken to Vladimir Putin on the phone – although the Russian side has not yet confirmed the conversation took place.<\/p>\n

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told Mr Trump “let’s do a deal”<\/strong><\/a> – offering the US a partnership over Ukraine’s stores of rare earth minerals.<\/p>\n

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\ud83d\udc49 Follow Trump 100 on your podcast app \ud83d\udc48<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Also overnight, Russian state media claimed that the nation’s armed forces had claimed control of the Orikhovo-Vasylivka settlement in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.<\/p>\n

And waves of drones from both sides attacked the other.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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“If Ukraine falls\u2026 we know what happens next”, former Tory MP Jack Lopresti tells Trevor Phillips from Kyiv. Less than a year ago, he was the parliamentary representative for Filton and Bradley Stoke near Bristol – now he is working with the Ukrainian military. Mr Lopresti is a former reservist soldier, although plays down his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/25\/02\/768x432\/skynews-jack-lopresti-ukraine_6823819.jpg?20250209110341","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[2947,7081,2198,234,632,492,1130],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235069"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235071,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235069\/revisions\/235071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}