{"id":591,"date":"2025-03-22T10:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T11:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/?p=591"},"modified":"2025-03-28T16:32:43","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T16:32:43","slug":"uk-has-just-two-years-to-prepare-for-world-war-iii-former-general-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/22\/uk-has-just-two-years-to-prepare-for-world-war-iii-former-general-warns\/","title":{"rendered":"UK has just two years to prepare for World War III, former general warns"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\"In\t<\/div>
Could lingering conflict in Ukraine spark an invasion of the Baltic states, a bombing campaign in England and nuclear war? (Picture: Russian Ministry Press Service via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We might have less than two years to prepare for war with Russia<\/a>, a retired British Army<\/a> general warned.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump<\/a> is withdrawing US<\/a> military support for Ukraine, and he is threatening to invade his NATO allies, effectively redrawing the alliances that many feel have helped preserve peace in Europe for decades.<\/p>\n

The less reliable the USA becomes as an ally under Trump’s presidency, the more vulnerable Europe is to an all-out Russian invasion, General Sir Richard Shirreff argues.<\/p>\n

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is prepared to exploit that, Shirreff believes, meaning the ceasefire Trump is strongarming Ukraine into will never lead to peace.<\/p>\n

Within two years, the former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe for NATO thinks Russian tanks will ‘roll across the border into Estonia and Latvia’.<\/p>\n

Writing for MailOnline, he said: ‘Within four hours they are approaching the Estonian capital of Tallinn.<\/p>\n

‘The British-led Enhanced Forward Battle Group in Estonia puts up brief resistance but takes heavy losses before being overwhelmed and forced to withdraw.’<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"EDINBURGH,\t<\/div>
Sir Richard Shirreff says an increase in defence spending is a matter of survival (Picture: Guillem Lopez\/Awakening\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\t\t\"British\t<\/div>
British forces may find themselves at the forefront of defence against Russian aggression if they’re stationed in Ukraine as peacekeepers or in the Baltic states with NATO (Picture: Shutterstock \/ PRESSLAB)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ultimately this would lead to the UK announcing it is formally at war with Russia, with Britain’s allies in Germany, France and Italy following suit.<\/p>\n

But years of political polarisation – often fuelled by Russian money, bot accounts and astro-turfing – may have succeeded in dividing Nato.<\/p>\n

‘As well as Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, the US refuses to offer support’, Shirreff said.<\/p>\n

He predicts this war won’t be contained to just countries on the peripheries of Europe.<\/p>\n

Russia could fire its missiles at RAF bases in England <\/a>and other targets in Western European countries, which launch retaliatory strikes on Russian energy and military infrastructure, while sending reinforcements to the Baltic states.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"Mandatory\t<\/div>
RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk has been highlighted as a likely first target for Russian attack, due to plans to host US nuclear weapons there (Picture: Bav Media\/REX\/Shutterstock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shirreff has a rather elaborate fantasy for the next two years – from Russian troops executed in the Donbas, to another Putin landgrab in Ukraine, welcomed this time by Trump under the guise of peace.<\/p>\n

The retired general sees a future where former boxer and mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko replaces Volodymyr Zelensky as President of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Klitschko, Shirreff thinks, will then use the return of all-out war to fire nuclear missiles – developed in the next two years – at Russia, destroying a city, sparking an ultranationalist coup in Moscow and the secession of various ‘vassal republics in the far east and the Caucasus’.<\/p>\n

This, he thinks, will lead to Putin’s regime collapsing and, with it, Russia’s warmongering – never mind the fact these ultranationalists are even more hawkish and many of these vassal states are dominated by ethnic Russians.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"ZAPORIZHZHIA,\t<\/div>
Russian airstrikes on Ukraine have increased despite talk of a ceasefire (Picture: Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

‘Fiction this might be’, Shirreff wrote. ‘But if we duck the opportunity to become masters of our fate, it will be Putin, not us, who is in control.<\/p>\n

‘Again, whether the West can survive depends on how well prepared we are.’<\/p>\n

There is plenty of evidence of Russia’s desire for expansion.<\/p>\n

At least 150,000 people – mostly civilians – were killed when Russia suppressed a war of independence in Chechnya, a region of Russia, in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Hundreds died and nearly 200,000 were displaced in its invasion of neighbouring Georgia in 2008. Regions of the country remain occupied.<\/p>\n

Russia is believed to have killed more civilians in Syria than ISIS did. Roughly 25,000 died in airstrikes carried out to prop up the allied Assad dictatorship.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"Members\t<\/div>
From airstrikes – like this one on a market – to Wagner mercenaries, Russia used many of the same tactics in Syria as it later unleashed on Ukraine (Picture: Omar Haj Kadour\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
\n\t\t\"A\t<\/div>
Russia invaded Georgia after it expressed interest in joining NATO, around the same time as Ukraine, which was invaded soon after (Picture: Denis Sinyakov\/Reuters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fantasising about the outbreak of war by 2027, Shirreff said: ‘The hundreds of billions of euros poured into strengthening our armed forces in the past two years means we can defend ourselves \u2013 and hit back hard.’<\/p>\n

On that, European leaders appear to already be acting by hiking spending while weighing up plans to send peacekeepers to Ukraine, with or without US support.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced an extra \u00a313.4 billion in defence spending<\/a> each year from 2027, in a statement to the House of Commons last month.<\/p>\n

He told MPs: \u2018One of the great lessons of our history is that instability in Europe will always wash up on our shores, and that tyrants like Putin will only respond to strength.’<\/p>\n

European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen announced up to \u00a3674 billion for rearming Europe and Ukraine earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Poland leads the way with a plan to spend 4.7% of its GDP on defence – higher than the 3.4% spent by the US last year.<\/p>\n

France’s defence budget is expected to reach \u00a357 billion per year by 2030, up from \u00a342.5 billion this year.<\/p>\n

Belgium aims to increase its defence budget from 1.3% of GDP to 2% by 2029.<\/p>\n

Denmark has announced a \u00a35.6 billion defence fund, and Germany – usually reluctant to confront Russia or boost military spending – is contemplating easing its debt brake to finance defence.<\/p>\n

Much of this is coming at the cost of welfare benefits – Finland bought new fighter jets but cut out-of-work payments and housing allowances last year.<\/p>\n

But, Shirreff warned, ‘we might have left it too late’.<\/p>\n

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

For more stories like this, <\/strong>check our news page<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Could lingering conflict in Ukraine spark an invasion of the Baltic states, a bombing campaign in England and nuclear war? (Picture: Russian Ministry Press Service via AP) We might have less than two years to prepare for war with Russia, a retired British Army general warned. Donald Trump is withdrawing US military support for Ukraine, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":600,"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions\/600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}