Russian aggression highlights the need to restore Army manpower

SIR – Your Leading Article (June 28) is a salutary reminder of the need to revisit the call in last year’s defence review for “a modern army that is more agile, more integrated and more expeditionary”, achieved through digitisation rather than numbers.

While digital transformation remains relevant, the need to refocus on our European backyard puts the spotlight firmly on numbers – particularly the plan to limit the Army to 73,000 regulars and 30,000 reserves, with a commensurate reduction in heavy armour.

Four months on from Russia’s invasion of a sovereign nation – and given Boris Johnson’s cheerleading for Ukraine at the G7 meeting, as well as Nato’s decision to increase highreadiness forces to 300,000 – the credibility of Britain’s contribution to thwarting Vladimir Putin’s ambitions is at stake.

However dire the economic outlook, the Government must reorder its defence priorities. This will include: reversing Army personnel cuts so that at least one full-sized armoured division can be fielded and sustained; rapidly procuring a range of equipment (including off-the-shelf items where current programmes have failed); and building up adequate stocks of materiel.

This will be a long haul, and the Prime Minister must prepare the population for the sacrifice involved. Brigadier Rod Brummitt (retd) Bournemouth, Dorset

SIR – I welcome the announcement by the Chief of the General Staff that the Army must put itself on a war footing to deter further Russian aggression.

However, the reality is that repeated cuts to our Armed Forces have left them almost unable to meet this goal. Even if defence spending rises to 2.5 per cent of GDP, it will be years before that translates to increased capability.

Successive governments have used the peace dividend after the Cold War to divert funds away from the military. Now we are exposed.

Lt Col Jeremy Prescott (retd) Southsea, Hampshire

SIR – What atrocity committed by Russia will trigger a military response from Nato?

The longer Russia is left unchallenged by the West, the more emboldened Mr Putin will become – and the longer the war carries on, the greater the response will have to be.

If we continue to sit on our hands and allow Ukraine to be destroyed, what will Russia do next?

Martin Powell Wysall, Nottinghamshire

SIR – The United Nations was created at the end of the Second World War to prevent further wars. It is an honour to be one of the five permanent members of its Security Council.

The time has surely come to reconsider Russia’s position as one of those members, given the atrocities it has committed – and, in many cases, denied – in Ukraine, as well as in Syria.

The current state of affairs is no longer tenable.

Patricia Gordon Duff Bristol