UK ‘is equipped for war against Russia’
THE UK is fully equipped to fight a war against Russia should Nato be attacked, a senior military officer has said.
Air Marshal Richard Knighton, deputy chief of the defence staff, rejected claims made by one of his predecessors, General Sir Richard Barrons, that “Nato isn’t ready”.
General Barrons told the House of Commons Defence Committee on April 19 that Nato “will have a call to make” should Russia attack members of the alliance, adding: “And that call would be easier if we had made any preparations at all to act in those circumstances at the speed required, and we have not.”
But AM Knighton told the same committee on Tuesday that Nato’s mission was “to deter an attack” and that Russia “is learning a lesson about the cost of invasion” in Ukraine.
Asked by Conservative MP Richard Drax whether the UK had enough equipment and ammunition to fight Russia for more than a week, AM Knighton replied: “Yes.”
He added: “The scenarios that we work through are many and varied, but if you are asking does Nato have the ability to blunt a Russian attack, yes it does.”
However, he said he was unable to comment on claims by a retired US general that a joint exercise with the US Army in 2021 saw UK forces run out of ammunition in a week during a simulation of a Russian invasion.
Meanwhile, Russia yesterday pounded eastern Ukraine as the US defence secretary promised to “keep moving heaven and earth” to get Kyiv the weapons it needs to repel the new offensive – even as Moscow warned such support risked widening the war.
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said that help was on the way, as he convened a meeting of officials from around 40 countries at the United States’ Ramstein Air Base in Germany to pledge more weapons.
“This gathering reflects the galvanised world,” Mr Austin said in his opening remarks.
He added that he wanted officials to leave the meeting “with a common and transparent understanding of Ukraine’s near-term security requirements because we’re going to keep moving heaven and earth so that we can meet them”.
The meeting in Germany comes after Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking on Russian television, warned weapons supplied by western countries “will be a legitimate target”, and accused Nato of “pouring oil on the fire” with its support for Ukraine.
Mr Lavrov also warned against provoking a third world war and said the threat of a nuclear conflict “should not be underestimated”.
Earlier, Petro Andryushchenko, adviser to Mariupol’s mayor, told the Associated Press by phone: “Russia has drastically intensified strikes over the past 24 hours and is using heavy bunker bombs.
“The number of those wounded will be clear once the rubble is cleared.”