A respected military officer warns that if Russia loses the Ukraine war, a "vindictive" Vladimir Putin could start targeting the UK. The outgoing head of the RAF also says if Putin is ousted, it could actually make things worse.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, the Chief of the Air Staff, claims that Britain and its Nato allies must 'focus' on the threat posed by Russia’s air force, surface navy and submarine force.
Sir Mike told The Telegraph: “When the Ukraine conflict is over and Ukraine has restored its borders, as it must, we will have a damaged, vindictive, and brutal Russia, whose means of harming us is through air attack, missile attack and subsurface attack."
He believes the threat from Russia is likely to last for years, even if Putin is forced out, as the Kremlin system “is more than about just one person”. Sir Mike said others, waiting to seize power, “could be equally brutal and vicious”.
He said: It demonstrates that this is more than about just one person. There is a whole structure and a hierarchy behind Putin. So even if Putin was to disappear off the stage, there are countless others that could replace him that could be as equally as brutal and vicious to their own people and to neighbouring states.”
Yesterday, Russia’s southern Belgorod region bordering Ukraine came under attack from Ukrainian artillery fire, authorities said, hours after at least one night-time blast rocked a Russian city in a region next to the annexed Crimea peninsula. The Kremlin’s forces, meanwhile, struck a clinic in Dnipro in central Ukraine, killing two people and wounding another 23, including two children, Ukrainian officials said.
Also, a Russian S-300 missile hit a dam in the Karlivka district of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province, placing nearby settlements under threat of severe flooding. The Belgorod town of Graivoron, some 4.5 miles from the Ukrainian border, was under fire for several hours, with four houses, a store, a car, a gas pipeline and a power line damaged, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported.
Subscribe here for the latest news where you live
Closer to the border, a recreation centre, a shop and an uninhabited house sustained damage in the village of Glotovo. There were no casualties, according to Mr Gladkov. The Belgorod region was earlier this week the target of one of the most serious cross-border attacks from Ukraine since the war began 15 months ago.
Details of the raid were murky, as Russia blamed the Ukrainian armed forces, but two Russian groups said they were involved, with the aim of bringing down Putin. Unconfirmed local reports said Friday’s explosion in Russia’s southern city of Krasnodar, in the region of the same name bordering Crimea, was caused by drones. Witnesses told local media they heard something like the sound of a moped and then two explosions.
