British troops must be prepared to “fight and win” to stop the spread of war in Europe, the new head of the army has warned.
General Sir Patrick Sanders, chief of the general staff, said Russia is likely to emerge from the war in Ukraine as an even greater threat to European security amid calls for a big increase in UK defence spending.
Speaking to a Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) conference in London, Sir Patrick said it was “dangerous” to assume that Ukraine was a “limited conflict”.
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He said: “We don’t know how the war in Ukraine will end but in most scenarios Russia will be an even greater threat to European security after Ukraine than it was before.
“The Russian invasion has reminded us of that time-honoured maxim that if you want to avert conflict you had better be prepared to fight.”
He compared the current situation to the run up to the Second World War, arguing Britain is facing another “1937 moment” and must be ready to “act rapidly” to ensure it is not drawn into a full-scale conflict by failing to contain Russian expansionism.
Defence secretary Ben Wallace is expected to us a speech at the conference on Tuesday to issue a fresh call for increased defence spending in the years ahead to counter the growing Russian threat.
Wallace has written to the Prime Minister calling for the defence budget to be lifted from two per cent to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2028.
The move comes as 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.
Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg Nato has announced plans to massively increase the number of its forces at high readiness from 40,000 to over 300,000 troops along the alliance’s eastern flank.
Stoltenberg said the increase followed a direct threat from Russia to European security.
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