Fears of a global conflict involving the UK, US, and Russia are growing as the war in Ukraine brings tensions to a knife-edge.
Outgoing US President Joe Biden has granted Ukraine the ability to strike into Russian territory with American weapons, sparking anger in Moscow,
Last weekend, Russian President Vladimir Putin put his nuclear forces on “special alert” while his Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, branded it a Western escalation.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has not authorised the use of British Storm Shadow missiles but has said allies must put Kyiv in the “strongest possible position” to win the war, hinting that he may yet give Ukraine this permission.
Speaking to MyLondon, an expert explained what impact a Russian nuclear strike could have on the UK.
Professor Andrew Futter, a nuclear weapons expert at the University of Leicester, said the UK “isn’t protected” against such a strike.
He added: “We don’t have any way to intercept Russian ballistic missiles flying towards the UK. We might be able to block bomber aircraft, but much of the Russian nuclear arsenal is based on missiles. We would see missiles coming, we have satellites in North Yorkshire and access to US and NATO early warning systems.”
In fact, if Russia launched a nuclear strike on the UK, Brits would only have about 15 minutes before impact.
Prof Futter explained: “It wouldn’t give us time to do anything. Government officials might be OK, there is a bunker under Whitehall and some places VIPs can hide.
“The nascent US and NATO missile defence systems would have some capability against launches from the Middle East but not Russia.”
Prof Futter added that the UK is unable to protect itself “because of a belief in the deterrent value of nuclear weapons, because we believe our Trident system, based on submarines, would be very hard to attack.”
However, a deterrent only works if the other side conforms to the current rules of engagement between nuclear powers.
Prof Futter went on: “None of us have a crystal ball, but I don’t see a nuclear attack on the UK being likely. It would be an enormous escalation and suicidal. Putin said he’d raise the alert status, it’s not clear what that means. He has strategic weapons that are on alert already.“
Russia could attack the UK in a number of ways, and from a number of directions.
Either way, Prof Futter says the consequences would be “pretty horrible.”
He explained: “It wouldn’t take many nuclear weapons to destroy the UK as a functioning state.”
