The West is readying a co-ordinated response to Vladimir Putin and Russia as we dictator ratchets up his war in Ukraine and continues to threaten Europe.
Vladimir Putin’s sacking of his Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu is evidence the Kremlin is gearing up for World War 3, according to Ilya Ponomarev, a leading anti-Putin activist.
Ponomarev said the move clearly shows the Kremlin is preparing for a long drawn out war that most likely will “go beyond” Ukraine.
READ MORE: Vladimir Putin’s ‘priorities have changed’ – war beyond Ukraine is now ‘most likely’
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And NATO forces, including the UK, are in the midst of preparations for any escalations. In April, while Rishi Sunak stressed the UK was “not on the brink of war” he pledged that UK military spending would rise to 2.5% of national income by 2030.
(Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
The Prime Minister claimed the extra money would put the country’s defence industry “on a war footing” and his comments follow calls for some sort of national conscription to be introduce.
General Sir Richard Shirreff, a former NATO commander, said earlier this year: “I think now… is the time to start thinking the unthinkable and really having to think quite carefully about conscription if we are to deliver the numbers needed.”
It comes as over 2,300 soldiers, sailors and aviators from four countries — Estonia, US, Poland and UK — are being led by Britain’s 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team [AABCT] in a practive operation in Estonia.
It is part of the months-long Exercise Steadfast Defender 24 involving 90,000 personnel – billed as the alliance’s largest wargame for decades.
(Image: Getty Images)
The exercise bids to test NATO’s “ability to defend against a near-peer adversary”.
It came after Russia threatened to strike British military facilities. Moscow warned Ukrainian strikes on Russia with UK-supplied weapons could prompt retaliation on British military facilities and equipment on Ukrainian soil or elsewhere.
A spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday (May 11): “We have to admit that NATO is seriously preparing for a ‘potential conflict’ with us.” It followed the Kremlin saying last month Russia and NATO are now in “direct confrontation”.
There is preparation outside of the NATO project, too. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson recently said hosting US nukes may be necessary ‘in a war situation’.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
“In the absolute worst-case scenario, the democratic countries in our part of the world must ultimately be able to defend themselves against countries that could threaten us with nuclear weapons,” he told Swedish public radio.
Kristersson’s declaration came weeks after Polish President Andrzej Duda made a similar pledge.
He said last month his nation would be ready to station US weapons on its territory, following Russia’s decision to deploy intercontinental ballistic missiles in neighbouring Belarus late last year.
In March, Putin warned a direct conflict between Russia and NATO would put the planet a step away from World War 3.
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