{"id":1283,"date":"2025-03-22T10:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T11:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/?p=1283"},"modified":"2025-03-27T11:27:41","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T11:27:41","slug":"uk-has-just-two-years-to-prepare-for-world-war-iii-former-general-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/22\/uk-has-just-two-years-to-prepare-for-world-war-iii-former-general-warns\/","title":{"rendered":"UK has just two years to prepare for World War III, former general warns"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Could lingering conflict in Ukraine spark an invasion of the Baltic states, a bombing campaign in England and nuclear war? (Picture: Russian Ministry Press Service via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We might have less than two years to prepare for war with Russia<\/a>, a retired British Army<\/a> general warned.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump<\/a> is withdrawing US<\/a> military support for Ukraine, and he is threatening to invade his NATO allies, effectively redrawing the alliances that many feel have helped preserve peace in Europe for decades.<\/p>\n

The less reliable the USA becomes as an ally under Trump\u2019s presidency, the more vulnerable Europe is to an all-out Russian invasion, General Sir Richard Shirreff argues.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s President Vladimir Putin is prepared to exploit that, Shirreff believes, meaning the ceasefire Trump is strongarming Ukraine into will never lead to peace.<\/p>\n

Within two years, the former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe for NATO thinks Russian tanks will \u2018roll across the border into Estonia and Latvia\u2019.<\/p>\n

Writing for MailOnline, he said: \u2018Within four hours they are approaching the Estonian capital of Tallinn.<\/p>\n

\u2018The British-led Enhanced Forward Battle Group in Estonia puts up brief resistance but takes heavy losses before being overwhelmed and forced to withdraw.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"EDINBURGH,\t<\/div>
Sir Richard Shirreff says an increase in defence spending is a matter of survival (Picture: Guillem Lopez\/Awakening\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\t\t\"British\t<\/div>
British forces may find themselves at the forefront of defence against Russian aggression if they\u2019re stationed in Ukraine as peacekeepers or in the Baltic states with NATO (Picture: Shutterstock \/ PRESSLAB)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ultimately this would lead to the UK announcing it is formally at war with Russia, with Britain\u2019s allies in Germany, France and Italy following suit.<\/p>\n

But years of political polarisation \u2013 often fuelled by Russian money, bot accounts and astro-turfing \u2013 may have succeeded in dividing Nato.<\/p>\n

\u2018As well as Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, the US refuses to offer support\u2019, Shirreff said.<\/p>\n

He predicts this war won\u2019t be contained to just countries on the peripheries of Europe.<\/p>\n

Russia could fire its missiles at RAF bases in England <\/a>and other targets in Western European countries, which launch retaliatory strikes on Russian energy and military infrastructure, while sending reinforcements to the Baltic states.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"Mandatory\t<\/div>
RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk has been highlighted as a likely first target for Russian attack, due to plans to host US nuclear weapons there (Picture: Bav Media\/REX\/Shutterstock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shirreff has a rather elaborate fantasy for the next two years \u2013 from Russian troops executed in the Donbas, to another Putin landgrab in Ukraine, welcomed this time by Trump under the guise of peace.<\/p>\n

The retired general sees a future where former boxer and mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko replaces Volodymyr Zelensky as President of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Klitschko, Shirreff thinks, will then use the return of all-out war to fire nuclear missiles \u2013 developed in the next two years \u2013 at Russia, destroying a city, sparking an ultranationalist coup in Moscow and the secession of various \u2018vassal republics in the far east and the Caucasus\u2019.<\/p>\n

This, he thinks, will lead to Putin\u2019s regime collapsing and, with it, Russia\u2019s warmongering \u2013 never mind the fact these ultranationalists are even more hawkish and many of these vassal states are dominated by ethnic Russians.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"ZAPORIZHZHIA,\t<\/div>
Russian airstrikes on Ukraine have increased despite talk of a ceasefire (Picture: Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018Fiction this might be\u2019, Shirreff wrote. \u2018But if we duck the opportunity to become masters of our fate, it will be Putin, not us, who is in control.<\/p>\n

\u2018Again, whether the West can survive depends on how well prepared we are.\u2019<\/p>\n

There is plenty of evidence of Russia\u2019s desire for expansion.<\/p>\n

At least 150,000 people \u2013 mostly civilians \u2013 were killed when Russia suppressed a war of independence in Chechnya, a region of Russia, in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Hundreds died and nearly 200,000 were displaced in its invasion of neighbouring Georgia in 2008. Regions of the country remain occupied.<\/p>\n

Russia is believed to have killed more civilians in Syria than ISIS did. Roughly 25,000 died in airstrikes carried out to prop up the allied Assad dictatorship.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"Members\t<\/div>
From airstrikes \u2013 like this one on a market \u2013 to Wagner mercenaries, Russia used many of the same tactics in Syria as it later unleashed on Ukraine (Picture: Omar Haj Kadour\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\t\t\"A\t<\/div>
Russia invaded Georgia after it expressed interest in joining NATO, around the same time as Ukraine, which was invaded soon after (Picture: Denis Sinyakov\/Reuters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fantasising about the outbreak of war by 2027, Shirreff said: \u2018The hundreds of billions of euros poured into strengthening our armed forces in the past two years means we can defend ourselves \u2013 and hit back hard.\u2019<\/p>\n

On that, European leaders appear to already be acting by hiking spending while weighing up plans to send peacekeepers to Ukraine, with or without US support.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced an extra \u00a313.4 billion in defence spending<\/a> each year from 2027, in a statement to the House of Commons last month.<\/p>\n

He told MPs: \u2018One of the great lessons of our history is that instability in Europe will always wash up on our shores, and that tyrants like Putin will only respond to strength.\u2019<\/p>\n

European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen announced up to \u00a3674 billion for rearming Europe and Ukraine earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Poland leads the way with a plan to spend 4.7% of its GDP on defence \u2013 higher than the 3.4% spent by the US last year.<\/p>\n

France\u2019s defence budget is expected to reach \u00a357 billion per year by 2030, up from \u00a342.5 billion this year.<\/p>\n

Belgium aims to increase its defence budget from 1.3% of GDP to 2% by 2029.<\/p>\n

Denmark has announced a \u00a35.6 billion defence fund, and Germany \u2013 usually reluctant to confront Russia or boost military spending \u2013 is contemplating easing its debt brake to finance defence.<\/p>\n

Much of this is coming at the cost of welfare benefits \u2013 Finland bought new fighter jets but cut out-of-work payments and housing allowances last year.<\/p>\n

But, Shirreff warned, \u2018we might have left it too late\u2019.<\/p>\n

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

For more stories like this, <\/strong>check our news page<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Could lingering conflict in Ukraine spark an invasion of the Baltic states, a bombing campaign in England and nuclear war? (Picture: Russian Ministry Press Service via AP) We might have less than two years to prepare for war with Russia, a retired British Army general warned. Donald Trump is withdrawing US military support for Ukraine, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-russia-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1283"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1292,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283\/revisions\/1292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}