WW3 fears as Army chief warns UK faces unavoidable conflict with Russia | UK | News | EUROtoday

Confrontation between the United Kingdom and Russia is unavoidable whether or not Kyiv triumphs or falls, Britain’s prime army commander has declared.

General Sir Roly Walker issued the stark evaluation because the world marks 4 years since Vladimir Putin’s forces crossed into Ukraine, warning that Moscow is assembling expanded and extra highly effective armed forces for escalated warfare.

In an unique article penned for this newspaper, the Chief of the General Staff said he sees no signal that the Kremlin plans to average its expansionist agenda.

Yet the Army’s senior officer struck a defiant tone, predicting British victory when battle arrives and pledging the longer term “will be on our terms, and our terms alone.”

Relentless troop deployments regardless of million-plus casualties

Russia has sacrificed upwards of 1.25 million personnel since launching its offensive, but Moscow continues feeding tens of hundreds of recent conscripts into the killing zones alongside Ukraine’s defensive positions.

Last night time Armed Forces Minister Al Carns invoked pre-Second World War parallels, suggesting present circumstances mirror “1937 or 1938” — the ominous remaining years earlier than Hitler’s aggression exploded.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky declared Russia has “already started World War Three.”

UK in Moscow’s focusing on scope

Sir Roly writes within the Daily Mail: “We, and the West generally, are in the crosshairs of Russia. It’s us on their terms or no deal. This is not going away, however the war in Ukraine ends.

“Unless one thing modifications, I feel we’re on a collision course with a Russia that’s on a conflict footing, that’s replenishing its misplaced gear and rearming itself to be an even bigger and extra deadly set of armed forces.”

According to intelligence from Ukrainian sources, Sir Roly noted, Russia will dismiss British deterrence until witnessing UK weapons manufacturing operating at full wartime capacity.

For that reason, he called for the rebuilding of the UK’s national arsenal.

Veteran special forces commander pledges NATO defence

The highly decorated former SAS officer committed to crushing any Russian attempt to capture NATO member territory.

He said: “Russia began this conflict by invading Ukraine. It appears to me solely they’ll determine to cease it. We must proceed serving to Ukraine. We also can sign to Putin that if he thinks will probably be any simpler to steal Nato territory then he’s much more silly than we thought. We won’t ever surrender what issues to us.”

Sir Keir Starmer will announce expanded Ukrainian support today during a Coalition of the Willing gathering he’s convening.

Simultaneously in Kyiv, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper plans to condemn what she terms “despicable” cultural reprogramming of populations living under Russian occupation.

Moscow’s Russification campaign compels residents to accept Russian citizenship documents, abandon Ukrainian language use, and terminate communication with family members still living in Ukraine-controlled zones.

Staggering equipment and personnel hemorrhaging

Armed Forces minister Al Carns catalogued Russia’s “unimaginable” battlefield costs — a minimum 1.25 million casualties alongside the obliteration of 10,000 armoured fighting vehicles and 4,000 main battle tanks.

Commemorating the invasion’s fourth anniversary, Mr Carns — who served five combat rotations in Afghanistan as a Royal Marine — observed: “I by no means thought I’d see North Korean troops preventing on the border of Europe in my lifetime – which ought to function a warning sign to us all.”

Western intelligence assessments released last night reportedly suggest 2026 represents a potentially critical juncture — marking the first period where Russian military deaths exceed new recruitment numbers.

This demographic reversal carries profound implications given Moscow’s infantry-centric combat doctrine, which relies on massed foot-soldier assaults across exposed terrain toward Ukrainian fortifications. Only after these human-wave attacks do Russian commanders commit mechanised assets during follow-on operations.

One contested front segment witnessed 16,000 Russian fatalities compressed into just fourteen days.

Analysts additionally warn that Russia’s wholesale economic transformation toward military production, combined with the scale of resources already invested, may make disengagement increasingly challenging for the Kremlin even if political will existed.

During BBC interviews, Zelensky characterised Putin as having effectively triggered a third global conflict, elaborating: “Russia needs to impose on the world a distinct lifestyle and alter the lives folks have chosen for themselves.”