The new UK army chief has reiterated his warning that Britain’s armed forces must be prepared to ‘fight and win’ to prevent the spread of war in Europe.
General Sir Patrick Sanders, the Chief of the General Staff, said that he has never seen such a clear threat to peace and democracy as the ‘brutal aggression’ of Russia’s president Vladimir Putin during a speech to the Royal United Services Institute on Tuesday
Drawing parallels with the build up to the breakout of the Second World War, Sanders said Britain must be on high alert to “act rapidly” to keep expansionism from Russia check.
Prime minister Boris Johnson said that he “doesn’t expect” that the UK will need to fight Russia.
He has however pledged to give nearly 500 million in taxpayers money to Ukraine!
The Mail Online reports: The calls for armament came as NATO said Monday it would boost its high readiness force from 40,000 to 300,000 troops and send more heavy weaponry to its eastern flank.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called it ‘the biggest overhaul of our collective defence and deterrence since the Cold War’.
His latest warning, in an address to a conference organised by the Royal United Services Institute think tank, comes after he wrote to all the troops under his command telling them they must prepare ‘to fight in Europe once again’.
Speaking at the same event, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is expected to issue a fresh call for increased defence spending in the years ahead to counter the growing threat.
His call comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson prepares to join other Nato leaders in Madrid for a summit at which they are expected to agree the biggest overhaul of the Western military alliance since the end of the Cold War.
A defence source did not deny reports that Mr Wallace asked Mr Johnson in a letter to lift the annual military budget from the current Nato minimum target of 2% of GDP to 2.5% by 2028.
‘We do not comment on alleged leaks. The Defence Secretary and the Prime Minister have always said that the Government will respond to any changes in threat which is why in 2020 the Ministry of Defence received a record defence settlement,’ they said.
Liz Truss said Nato should focus on increasing flexibility in resource deployment, the use of modern techniques such as ‘hybrid warfare, the weaponisation of migration, the use of cyber attack’, and spending more on defence.
‘Two percent needs to be a floor, not a ceiling for defence spending’, the Foreign Secretary said in an interview with Die Welt, La Repubblica and El Pais.
In his first public engagement since taking up his post, Gen Sanders will say his focus is on mobilising the Army to help prevent the spread of war in Europe by being ‘ready to fight and win alongside our Nato allies and partners’.
‘In all my years in uniform, I haven’t known such a clear threat to the principles of sovereignty and democracy, and the freedom to live without fear of violence, as the brutal aggression of president Putin and his expansionist ambitions,’ he is expected to say.
‘This is our 1937 moment. We are not at war – but must act rapidly so that we aren’t drawn into one through a failure to contain territorial expansion.
‘I will do everything in my power to ensure that the British Army plays its part in averting war.’