Brits 'should prepare to be called into war' as conscripts against Putin's army
Brits must prepare to be conscripted to fight Vladimir Putin's troops, a retired military commander has warned.
The armed forces are "wafer thin", so "small in terms of equipment, so undertrained, so badly supported" they will need the support of a real life Dad's Army to repel the Russians, says ex-deputy chief of defence staff General Sir Richard Barrons.
He said the country needs to snap out of thinking war is "always an away game". Sir Richard, who served in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo and Northern Ireland and led Joint Forces Command before retiring in 2016, said he understood anyone under 40 may find it hard to contemplate a national call to arms having grown up enjoying the 'peace dividend' of the post-Cold War world.
But if relations with Russia continue to deteriorate military mobilisation is not unthinkable - it's just "unpalatable", he added. "It is alien but only in our lifetimes, not in our ancestors' lives. My father did National Service,'' he said. "In the mobilisation of civil society you start with volunteers. If the war is not over and you've run out of volunteers then you have to conscript people. This is entirely historically normal.
"You're not mobilising because you're going to invade somebody else's country. You're mobilising because someone is threatening yours - and your family and your livelihood. Today's youngsters may think, 'I don't want to fight'. That's a healthy feeling. They may think, 'I don't have to fight.' That's true today."
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Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine continues to raise international stakes (Getty Images)Speaking to the Daily Star, he said: "But in the future if their security, their life prospects and those of anyone they care about is in jeopardy - because people are firing missiles at them, dismantling their power supply with cyber attacks and committing the sorts of atrocities you see in Ukraine - then they'll fight. They'll fight because they'll see they don't have any choice.''"
Earlier this week, the head of the British Army General Sir Patrick Sanders also warned underfunding has reduced Britain's military might to a homeland force not far from Captain Mainwaring's ragtag outfit in the BBC's hit 70s' Home Guard comedy.
Yesterday, Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said war between Russia and NATO would be inevitable if Western troops go to Ukraine. He reacted after French President Emmanuel Macron "refused to rule out" putting boots on the ground as Kyiv struggles to fend off Russia's full-scale invasion. Asked if such a move would trigger war Peskov said: "In this case we need to talk not about the likelihood, but about the inevitability.
General Sir Richard Barrons says people may have 'no choice' but to fight (PA)"That's how we evaluate it. These countries must also evaluate and be aware of this, asking themselves whether this corresponds to their interests as well as the interests of the citizens of their countries.''"
The UK Government has said it has no plans to reintroduce conscription. But analysts from the Royal Institute of International Affairs think tank - known as Chatham House - fear Putin will target further NATO states if he emerges victorious in Ukraine.
Worryingly if he was removed from power his replacement could be even more nationalistic. Researchers - who predicted Putin would invade long before it happened - believe the best solution to the conflict would be a small surrender of territory to Russia by Ukraine which in return would be free to join NATO. Though analysts said Ukrainian leaders were presently unlikely to accept any such border shifts.
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