LONDON

The British defense secretary on Wednesday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of going “full tonto” in his decision to send troops into two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.

In a meeting with Home Secretary Priti Patel and military personnel, Ben Wallace argued that Russia made the mistake of having no allies in its decision to rapidly escalate tensions with Ukraine and the West, comparing Putin to Tsar Nicholas I in his failed Crimean War.

“Unfortunately we’ve got a busy adversary now in Putin who has gone full tonto. We’ve got 1,000 people on standby. We should send the Gurkhas in. The Scots Guards kicked the backsides of Tsar Nicholas I in 1853 in Crimea, we can always do it again,” Wallace said.

The defense secretary’s comments were made unguarded and were not a part of an official speech or statement but they underscored the urgency of the Ukraine crisis within the government.

Wallace was a former Scots Guards officer in the British Army, a unit that fought in the 1853 Crimean War alongside the Ottoman Empire and other European allies that saw the defeat of the Russian Empire.

On Wednesday, the British government announced the implementation of new sanctions against Russian banks and wealthy individuals. The government, however, have come under criticism for not going further in pressuring Moscow in withdrawing from Kyiv.

Putin on Monday announced that Russia was recognizing Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states, followed quickly by sending Russian forces there to “maintain peace.”

The announcements drew widespread global condemnation as violations of the UN Charter and international law, with Western countries announcing new sanctions on Russia.

In 2014, after invading Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, Moscow began to support separatist forces in eastern Ukraine against the central government, a policy that it has maintained for the past seven years. The conflict has taken more than 13,000 lives, according to the UN.

Putin’s latest moves follow Russia amassing more than 100,000 troops and heavy equipment in and around its neighbor, with the US and Western countries accusing it of setting the stage for an invasion.

Russia has denied it is preparing an invasion and instead claimed Western countries undermined its security through NATO’s expansion toward its borders.