Admiral Lord West, the former First Sea Lord, issued the dire warning about nuclear threats as he said Britain was already ‘effectively at war’ with Vladimir Putin’s Russia
The former head of the Navy has warned that the Russia-Ukraine war risks spiralling into a nuclear confrontation.
Admiral Lord West, the former First Sea Lord, issued the dire warning as he said Britain was already “effectively at war” with Moscow.
He pointed to “grey zone warfare” – hostile acts that fall outside traditional armed conflict – such as Russian sabotage of undersea cables and drone incursions along Nato’s eastern flank.
Lord West told the Lord Speaker’s podcast: “It’s quite difficult to see how one’s going to get out of this (conflict) because one doesn’t want a full war between Nato and Russia.
“They (Russia) would lose it. And the danger with them losing it is – would they then make that stupid mistake of going nuclear?”
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Former Nato General Secretary Lord Robertson, who led a root and branch review of the nation’s defence, said Britain was woefully unready for the threats it faces.
Experts have previously warned of escalating plots by Russia against the UK, including cyber hacking, spy flights, fire bombings and submarine incursions.
Sir Ken McCallum, the boss of MI5, last month said Russia is “committed to causing havoc and destruction” around the world – but is being forced to rely on expendable proxies after its spies were expelled from embassies across Europe.
Lord Robertson told the podcast: “We are under-prepared, we’re under-insured, we’re under attack and we’re not safe.
“You wouldn’t tell that from Parliament. You wouldn’t tell that from people walking around the streets.
“But we are under attack in the cyber world. You could say it’s just a coincidence that all of these cyber outages have taken place in the last few weeks, but they can’t be all coincidental.
“The organisation of sabotage right across the continent of Europe has undoubtedly been organised by the GRU, the Russian military.”
Vladimir Putin’s ambitions are not restricted to seizing territory in eastern Ukraine, sparking alarm in neighbouring countries like Moldova and Azerbaijan, he said.
“They are much bigger than that and much more fundamental to our security than that,” he added.
“So giving support to President Zelenskyy and to the Ukrainian government at this point is absolutely crucial in order to change the mind of Vladimir Putin… So he’s got to be persuaded that he cannot win.
“And at the moment he’s not winning. He’s only making tiny territorial movements.”