Britain MUST face the fact that NATO may go to war with Russia

Britain MUST face the fact that NATO may go to war with Russia, warns former general SIR RICHARD SHIRREFF

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has failed. As Kyiv steadily takes back swathes of land in strategic southern Kherson and in the north east, Putin is resorting to desperate measures to save himself.

Following the destruction of the Kerch bridge to the Crimean peninsula – which Russia claims was Ukrainian ‘terrorism’ – yesterday saw Moscow launch brutal missile attacks against civilian targets, most fatally in the centre of Kyiv.

Meanwhile, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev gloated that this was just ‘the first episode’, signalling that the intensification of attacks could be the start of a further escalation in the war by the Kremlin.

Yet Putin will need a lot more manpower if he is to take on Ukraine’s military counteroffensive – and it may not be as simple as he would like the West to believe.

As Kyiv steadily takes back swathes of land in strategic southern Kherson and in the north east, Putin is resorting to desperate measures to save himself

Bombardments like the ones seen this week will not bring Ukraine to its knees. They are simply not enough to change the battlefield dynamic and ensure that Russia is in the ascendant.

Nor does Putin have the artillery war chest to escalate the war with strikes alone. Rather, his aim is to destroy civilian morale. But as this week has shown, the opposite is the case: even as Ukraine’s cities suffer, the people’s morale is stronger than ever.

Ramping up the war will require mobilisation on an even larger scale and, even if Putin is able to force hordes of untrained men into a makeshift army, they will have scarcely any kit or weapons.

In a speech on September 21, Putin announced the mobilisation of 300,000 troops – Russia’s first since the Second World War.

The Kremlin would draft into uniform just ‘those who served in the armed forces and have certain military specialties’, he declared.

Ramping up the war will require mobilisation on an even larger scale and, even if Putin is able to force hordes of untrained men into a makeshift army, they will have scarcely any kit or weapons

Even then, intelligence by Britain’s Ministry of Defence found that those soldiers would be provided with only ‘low-level initial training’, since the majority of military commanders had already been deployed to Ukraine. So conscription on an even larger scale would be chaos. Already we are seeing waves of recruits sent to the front line in trainers, because boots (like everything else in the Russian military) are in short supply. As the Ukrainian winter sets in, many of these unlucky conscripts might freeze to death before they see battle, contributing to a collapse in morale.

The toll of casualties will be immense and though we know Russians are prepared to endure pain, they are also not afraid of revolution.

Following the first mobilisation, Moscow’s local media has said as many as 700,000 civilians have fled.

This exodus would get worse should Putin escalate the war.

He is setting the conditions to make an enemy of his entire people. Now more than ever, the West has to ensure Ukraine has all the support it needs to fight. We must double down.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky and his citizens will not blink in the face of this onslaught, and neither should we. We have to be prepared to ramp up our support to ensure that Moscow’s brutal assault is seen to fail spectacularly.

Putin and his media cronies are attempting to intimidate us by threatening to use nuclear weapons.

The toll of casualties will be immense and though we know Russians are prepared to endure pain, they are also not afraid of revolution

He has to understand that, if he ever resorted to this genocidal tactic, the response of the West would be unprecedented. Even Russia could not withstand such pain.

Nato leaders, and in particular US President Joe Biden, have to use every available channel to make the Kremlin grasp this.

In public, Mr Biden does not need to spell out his intentions. But the message has to be sent, and it has to be unmistakable.

Even then, I fear Putin is deranged enough to carry out his nuclear threats. I have been warning for years that we must prepare for the prospect of war with Russia.

So far, instead of investing in our armed forces, successive UK defence reviews have drained our strength – and strength is the only standpoint that Putin understands.

Britain’s leaders will need great courage and the support of our whole population. Although Ukraine is fighting back, a war between Nato countries and Russia remains a very real possibility.

General Sir Richard Shirreff is the former deputy supreme allied commander Europe

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