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The UK military is prepared to fight Russian forces if Eastern Europe is invaded, stated Deputy Defence chief Rob Magowan, amid rising tensions following Ukraine’s strikes on Russian targets with US-supplied missiles.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (Photo: AFP)
The armed forces of the United Kingdom would be ready to fight their Russian counterparts if President Vladimir Putin invades another Eastern European nation, Rob Magowan, the deputy chief of the British defence staff has reportedly said.
According to a report with Politico, the top UK military chief, in a statement to the House of Commons defence committee, 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.”
Magowan’s remarks came after he was asked as to how many British brigades could get to NATO’s eastern flank in the event of a major escalation by Russia, the report stated.
He also told MPs that the UK armed forces have “a range of operational risks and operational strengths,” and said he had spoken before about needing “more lethality,” it stated.
This comes amid soaring tensions as Russian foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin recently said that his country will retaliate against NATO countries that facilitate long-range missile strikes against Russian territory by Ukraine.
Naryshkin also said changes announced by Putin to Russia’s nuclear doctrine meant it was in effect impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield.
Ukraine used US ATACMS missiles to strike Russian territory, taking advantage of newly granted permission from the outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden on the 1,000th day of the war in Ukraine.
On the same day, Putin approved a policy document that lowered the threshold for Russia to use nuclear weapons in response to attacks by an enemy using conventional weapons.
In July, Putin said that Russia would start producing intermediate-range missiles to “mirror” US plans to deploy such weapons. Of late, he said Russia developed Oreshnik in response to the US development and deployment of missiles with a similar range.
If Russia launches more strikes on Ukraine with the new missile, it will warn of its use in advance to allow civilians to reach safety as a “humanitarian” gesture, Putin said, adding that Moscow isn’t worried about tipping off the enemy since it cannot stop the attack.
Later, UK Defense Secretary John Healey told lawmakers that the war was at “a serious moment”, and “the front line is now less stable than at any time” since the conflict began, the Associated Press reported.
Last month, Politico reported UK Defense Secretary John Healey as saying that the state of the armed forces was “far worse than we thought” after his Labour Party entered government.
Meanwhile, eastern European NATO members, including Latvia and Estonia, have been eyeing Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Finland, which borders Russia to its east, warned about sabotage of critical infrastructure.
Despite Magowan’s tough talk, concerns remain about the UK’s military capability in the event of a European escalation, Politico reported.
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