Richard Branson: ‘We’re effectively at war with Russia’, Western nations urged to stop ‘dithering’ on Ukraine

Virgin boss Richard Branson says he is baffled by the United States’ dithering in response to Vladimir Putin and backed higher defence spending saying the West is effectively already at war with Russia.

The entrepreneur said Russian President Vladimir Putin had put his finger up to Donald Trump and that American strength was needed in response.

He called on civilised countries, including Australia, to ensure that Vladimir Putin does not take over Ukraine.

Sir Richard, a global business icon and celebrity made the comments speaking exclusively to the Latika Takes podcast for The Nightly in New York.

A critic of Donald Trump’s negative style, he said it was right for the US President to have attempted to broker a peace with Mr Putin but that when that failed to bring Russia to the negotiating table, Mr Trump should have responded with thunder.

“I’m baffled and I think a lot of people are baffled,” Sir Richard said.

“It was fine for him to try to have a peace conference but Putin has basically put his finger up at Trump and put his finger up at the rest of the world.

I think pretty well every country in the West is now massively boosting their defence spending, because they realise that not to do so is just leaving an open door to Putin.

“So what we have to hope is that now it’s very clear that Putin is not up for compromising that every country, every civilised country, give Ukraine all the support they can to start pushing the Russians back out of their country.

He said it was not too late for Ukraine to still strike at Russian military depots and win.

“I think what’s sad is that one particular country has dithered, quite badly and that dithering has empowered Putin to push on,” Sir Richard said.

“If a year ago we’d seen strength from the countries that were united against Russia on this issue, I think that Russia would’ve caved in by now.“

“They have the capability of going down with thunder, and it’s still not too late, but they — Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia — all civilised countries should show Putin that we mean business.”

Australia has not committed any new aid to Ukraine for more than a year.

Ukraine is seeking joint ventures and investments in drone factories, saying it has the capacity to ramp up its drone production but just lacks the funding.

When The Nightly asked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese if he would consider investing in Ukrainian military production capabilities, her said he would monitor the assistance Australia might give.

“We monitor what assistance we can give, we engage and I engage directly with President Zelensky … about that,” Mr Albanese said.

“We engage directly with leaders rather than through the media is what we do, and that is what you would expect.”

Mr Albanese has also declined to raise defence spending levels to the new NATO standard of 3.5 per cent, despite the Trump Administration’s requests.

Sir Richard said he never expected to be speaking in support of raising defence funding but believed it was now a must.

“I never thought in my lifetime I would say that we should increase our defence spending. I really hoped that Russia could have become part of Europe, that priority could have been given to health and education and all the pleasantries of life,” he said.

“But you know, Russia has changed all that, and yes, I think pretty well every country in the West is now massively boosting their defence spending, because they realise that not to do so is just leaving an open door to Putin.”

Few countries have set out how they plan to reach their defence spending and if it will involve spending cuts, such as to costly welfare programs or higher taxes.

Sir Richard likened the need to raise defence funding to the sacrifices governments asked citizens to take during the pandemic.

“There have to be compromises when you are in effect at war, we had compromises that had to be made during COVID,” he said.

“Now that we are effectively at war with Russia, compromises will have to be made to make sure that we win that war.”

The British entrepreneur has been one of the corporate sector’s biggest backers of Ukraine since Putin illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 — the same year Russian-backed forces shot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, killing 38 people who called Australia home.

Sir Richard, the co-founder of Virgin Group, funds Ukraine efforts through the company’s non-profit arm Superhumans, which performs surgeries and fits prosthetics for the country’s war-wounded.

The Superhumans charity has three centres in Ukraine, including in Lviv in the country’s west near the border with Poland, as well as in the capital Kyiv, which Prince Harry visited in September.

The centres treat around 3000 people per year, but around 80,000 need medical help because of injuries sustained due to landmines and Putin’s attacks, particularly on civilian targets.

He has visited Ukraine several times since the full-scale invasion began in 2022 to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Another of Sir Richard’s philanthropic endeavours is The Elders, officially launched be Nelson Mandela in 2007, to bring together a group of international leaders to work on global challenges through private diplomacy.

Sir Richard recoiled at being called a billionaire and said that he was a creator and entrepreneur but said that if his status in any way could influence Mr Trump to better arm Ukraine, he would make the call.

Asked if this applied to Mr Putin, he said: “If I did, I wouldn’t talk about it publicly, possibly through The Elders, talks may have happened, may happen.”

Fresh from brokering a Gaza ceasefire, Mr Trump announced plans for a face-to-face meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin within the next two weeks to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

The announcement came ahead of his planned White House meeting with President Zelenskyy on Friday, where the possible transfer of Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv is expected to be discussed.

The US and Russian leaders spoke by phone on Thursday, a call Mr Trump described as “productive,” with their meeting to take place in Budapest, Hungary.

“We hope we’re going to get it stopped. Because of my relationship with Putin, I though this would be very quick,” Mr Trump told reporters.

“Who would think I would do Middle East before this? We did a total of eight (wars) before this, seven and then eight. We’re going to make this number nine.

“Tomorrow I’m meeting with President Zelenskyy and I’ll tell him about the call.”

Earlier, Mr Trump said he was still making up his mind on whether to allow Ukraine to strike deeper into Russia.

“They want to go offensive, I’ll make a determination on that,” Mr Trump said, speaking in the Oval Office.

He said that India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured him that he would soon stop buying Russian oil.

Mr Trump had imposed sanctions on India, citing his unhappiness at China and India’s purchase of oil from Russia, which was enabling Putin to fund his war against Ukraine.

“If India doesn’t buy oil, it makes it much easier,” Mr Trump said.

“Within a short period of time, they will not be buying oil from Russia.

“Who would think I created peace in the Middle East and can’t get the two guys to settle, but I think we’ll get them.”

President Zelenskyy said in his regular nightly video address that he had done his homework ahead of the meeting with Mr Trump.

“Every detail, everything is ready,” he said. “The agenda of our meeting with the President of the United States is very substantive.

“This can truly bring the war closer to an end — it is the United States that can wield this kind of global influence, and we are doing everything to ensure that others around the world stand on our side in this effort.”