Britain's top military officer has said Vladimir Putin has already lost and is weaker than he was a month ago.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin has also claimed the blueprint published last March identified Moscow as the biggest threat to the UK’s security.
Five weeks after Vladimir Putin’s forces waged war on their neighbour, he said: “I think we will have to look and explore and understand what the events in Ukraine mean and what impact does that have on the Integrated Review, and I think that’s perfectly fair.
"I think it would be insane not to have the humility or the curiosity to look again at what we can learn from what’s going on."
The 114-page document, ‘Global Britain in a competitive age: The Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy’, said: “NATO will remain the foundation of collective security in our home region of the Euro-Atlantic, where Russia remains the most acute threat to our security.”
It added that Russia “will remain the most acute direct threat to the UK”.
However, critics have called for the review to be reopened and more money to be pumped into the armed forces following the outbreak of war in Europe.
Defending the study, Adm Sir Tony told Whitehall’s Institute for Government think-tank: “It rightly identified Russia as an acute threat, it reinforced that the way that we best protect our national security against that particular threat is through collective defence - and we are in the world’s most powerful military alliance, called NATO.”
The former First Sea Lord said British troops “must be more active and engaged in the world” to “protect and advance the national interest and our shared democratic values”.
Rivals were trying to “challenge and undermine the international, rules-based system here in Europe and elsewhere”, warned the naval officer.
He also launched a blistering personal attack on the Russian President, whom he branded “a weaker and more diminished figure today than he was a month ago”.
“In many ways, Putin has already lost,” said Adm Sir Tony, 56.
“Far from being the far-sighted manipulator of events that he would have us believe, Putin has damaged himself through a series of catastrophic misjudgements.
“He has failed to recognise how deeply the notions of sovereignty, democracy and national identity have taken root in Ukraine.
“Like all authoritarians, he allowed himself to be misled as to his own strength, including the effectiveness of the Russian armed forces.
“He has failed to anticipate the unity and cohesion that exists among the free nations of the world, here in Europe and obviously far beyond.
“His actions to date have done more to galvanise than divide and have shown Ukraine to have the one thing that Russia conspicuously lacks, which is real friends.”
Adm Sir Tony described NATO as “stronger and more united than at any time I can remember”.
