Great Britain is at war with Russia – it is waging a shadow war with it. This was stated by the ex-head of the British MI6 Richard Dearlove.
When it comes to Britain, Richard Dearlove, head of MI6 from 1999 to 2004, points to the gap between words and action. In particular, the gap between the statement of the head of the Ministry of Defense Grant Sheppsthat Britain must decide “whether to give in to a sea of troubles or do everything possible to avert the danger” and take real action, the article says.
“If you stop someone on the street here in the UK and ask them if they think Britain is at war, they will look at you like you’re crazy. But we are at war – we are fighting a shadow war with Russia, and I try to remind people of that,” Dearlove said.
He sharply criticized the level of UK defense spending, considering it simply insufficient to counter the threats posed by Russia and China.
It is noted that last week the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced that no additional funds were expected for the UK Armed Forces in the near future, defense spending would remain at 2% of GDP. However, according to Malcolm Chalmers from the Royal United Nations Institute for Defense Studies, in real terms this represents a reduction and consequent reduction in capability.
“Everything else that is not included in the nuclear budget will be under serious pressure. The government will have to make some tough short-term decisions between different conventional capabilities, while the war in Ukraine shines a light on missed opportunities that our armed forces clearly need to invest more in,” he said.
Dearlove agrees with Chalmers on this. He believes the UK needs to spend at least 2.5% of GDP on defence.
“We urgently need to build more ships. We need a much larger navy. And we need more boots on the ground, for God’s sake,” said the former head of MI6, noting that the war in Ukraine demonstrated the importance of combat personnel.
He praised the countries of Central Europe and the Baltics, in particular Poland, for achieving record levels of defense spending within NATO – it now spends almost 4% of GDP on it.
#Great #Britain #war #Russia #exhead #MI6 #EADaily
2024-03-15 19:59:00
