General Sir Nick Carter has poured doubt over Britain’s ability to deter Vladimir Putin’s aggression on the ground in Ukraine, claiming the home nations “are not equipped”
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General Sir Nick Carter says the UK is ‘massively vulnerable’
Britain is not “equipped or manned” to deter Vladimir Putin’s forces in Ukraine the former head of the Armed Forces has said in a crushing blow to the Prime Minister.
Keir Starmer this week proposed a joint taskforce in Ukraine involving troops on the ground to “guarantee the security of our continent”, and prevent a repeat Russian invasion. He declared Britain is “ready and willing” to take a leading role in such an operation, which defence experts have claimed may need as many as 100,000 troops to be fully effective.
However his claims have been met with scorn by General Sir Nick Carter who disagreed with the PM. He told Question Time: “If it will need to be a force to deter Putin’s aggression, then fundamentally we are not equipped or manned to be able to do that at the moment.
“The British Army’s given a huge number of its tanks to Ukraine and no longer has enough for what is required. This has been a process of neglect over a 30 year period. In that time warfare has also evolved. We are in a position where we are massively vulnerable right now and whether we like it or not, will have to start protecting ourselves.
“We might be able to park a destroyer in the Thames to protect parts of London but nothing more than that. If it is an observer mission and we’re going to be driving around in white vehicles, that’s fine.”
Sir Nick’s comments come after the PM said in the Telegraph this week: “The UK is ready to play a leading role in accelerating work on security guarantees for Ukraine.
“This includes further support for Ukraine’s military, where the UK has already committed £3 billion a year until at least 2030. But it also means being ready and willing to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine by putting our own troops on the ground if necessary.”
In response Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters at a briefing the presence of foreign forces in Ukraine would “cause concern” to Russia – and suggested they would be watching any developments “very closely”. He had earlier said: “Europeans are currently talking a lot about peacekeeping contingents—this includes the French and the British, and that is indeed the case.
“We all know the rules for deploying peacekeeping forces. So far, no substantive discussions on this topic have taken place.”
