A former Nato commander believes plans due to be put forward by Sir Keir Starmer to send fewer than 30,000 European peacekeeping troops to Ukraine aren’t credible and that Britain must prepare for war with Russia.
General Sir Richard Shirreff said Russia must be defeated before any peacekeeping mission, but warned allied powers deploying peacekeeping soldiers should be ready for “full-scale state on state warfare” if Moscow’s forces attack them.
He added the Prime Minister will be “laughed out of court” by Donald Trump next week when he travels to Washington unless the Prime Minister signals defence spending will rise to at least 3 per cent.
The ex-Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe of Nato called on European powers to arm Kyiv to defeat Vladimir Putin on the battlefield before any peacekeeping force is deployed.
Conscription of around 30,000 Britons a year must also be considered to boost the size of the British Army to 100,000, he believes, although as a professional soldier he said he “hated” the idea of conscription, with training to prepare Armed Forces reservists in the event of the “worst case”.
“Where are the air defence missiles defending London, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast, other major UK cities?” Sir Richard told The i Paper.
“Where is the mobilising of the defence industries, the mobilising of the national economy to fight a war?
“This is big stuff. This is really serious. Munich, 1938 was a betrayal of Czechoslovakia, but at least it forced Chamberlain to kick off rearmaments.
“Munich 2025 is set to be a betrayal of Ukraine. But it should also be firing a starting gun to prepare Britain and Nato for war with Russia, because that ultimately is the only way we are going to maintain peace.”
If Trump pulled US troops out of Baltic Nato states it could embolden Putin to launch further attacks and risk a Third World War, he added.
The PM is set to unveil the blueprint, led by the UK and France, for a “reassurance force” of 30,000 soldiers to Trump next week.
But Sir Richard said while plans to use intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, drones and satellites to monitor any border with Russia were a good idea, “a lot more” soldiers were needed.
“The only cast iron security guarantee for Ukraine is Nato membership. The next guarantee is really capable troops, a military force with a clear intent that if the Russians do anything to break a cease fire, they’ll get thumped,” he said.
“I think that you’re going to be really pushed to do anything with 30,000.
“You’ve got to say, right, this is the nature of the task. This is what is required to do the task. Rather than saying the most we can provide is 30,000 and therefore, let’s find ways to make it stretch. So I don’t think it sounds credible, frankly.”
Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, has said sole responsibility for any peacekeeping operations would fall on the Europeans and Canada.
Trump was creating the conditions for Putin to win the war, with Nato in danger of being “holed below the waterline” by the US President, said Sir Richard, now a leading geopolitical keynote speaker with the Champions Speakers Agency.
It comes as Defence Secretary John Healey said a ceasefire in Ukraine must not be something that is broken again by Russia re-invading Ukraine.
Sir Richard added: “All the talk about any ceasefire force, whether you call it implementation or reassurance or whatever, is totally academic, unless the Russians are forced to accept it.
“And so the first step is to say, how do we force the Russians to accept it? We defeat the Russians in Ukraine, or we help the Ukrainians to defeat the Russians in Ukraine.
“The only hope for long term peace and security in Europe is if Russia is given a bloody nose in Ukraine and recognises it will never achieve its aims – in other words, defeating Russia in Ukraine.”
Long-range missiles with permission to striked deep into Russia, huge caches of ammunition, air defence surveillance, tanks, armored infantry fighting vehicles and self propelled artillery, together with drones and satellite surveillance were all needed by Ukraine, Sir Richard said.
Speaking on The Jeremy Vine Show, Labour MP Paulette Hamilton said that the UK needs to start “a serious discussion around conscription”.
The MP for Birmingham Erdington said: “Conscription is not something I would have thought about until all of this has blown up. But I do think we need to start the serious discussions around conscription.
“Because young people are not engaged but they’re going to have to because our borders are being threatened and you cannot continue to bury your head in the sand.”
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “This is purely speculation. As the Prime Minister said after Monday’s Paris summit, we are still at the early stages of the process, but Britain will take a leading role in supporting a lasting peace in Ukraine that safeguards its sovereignty and will deter Putin from further aggression in the future.”
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