Lieutenant General Rob Magowan, the deputy chief of the British Defence staff, said last week the UK Armed Forces would be ready to fight their Russian counterparts at any point, if needed.
Lt Gen Magowan said: “If the British Army was asked to fight tonight, it would fight tonight.
“I don’t think anybody in this room should be under any illusion that if the Russians invaded Eastern Europe tonight, then we would meet them in that fight.”
The chilling statement, delivered last Thurday to the House of Commons defence committee, came as Moscow continues to escalate tensions. But do you agree with it? Have your say in our poll below…
Earlier that same week, Russian President Vladimir Putin had said in a televised address Moscow could strike the military installation of any country whose weapons were used against Russia – setting off alarm bells.
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Moreover, on the same day Lt Gen Magowan addressed the committee, the Russian leader revealed his military had fired a new hypersonic missile at a Ukrainian military facility.
His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, issued a thinly-veiled threat to the US and the UK the following day, saying the move was a warning to the West.
The relationship between the West and Russia has been strained since Moscow ordered the illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But Ukraine targeting targets inside of Russia using US and UK-made long-range missiles – the ATACMS and Storm Shadows, respectively – have led to tensions skyrocketing and have seen Russian politicians and propagandists alike ramping up their nuclear threats against Europe and the States.
The increasingly concerning rhetoric coming from Moscow comes amid a fresh warning from the chair of the NATO military committee, Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, to business leaders.
Speaking at an event of the European Policy Centre think tank, he said on Tuesday that deterrence isn’t a duty to be undertaken only by the military.
He said: “If we can make sure that all crucial services and goods can be delivered no matter what, then that is a key part of our deterrence.”
He added: “We’re seeing that with the growing number of sabotage acts, and Europe has seen that with energy supply.”
His warning came as Germany announced it was drawing up a list of bunkers and other underground facilities that could provide shelter for civilians in the event of an attack.
