War with Russia is inevitable unless the UK replenishes stockpiles of lethal weapons and rapidly improves its defences, the former head of the British Army has warned.
General Sir Patrick Sanders, who stood down from his role in June, said that if the Britain fails to build up supplies after gifting weapons to Ukraine, it could be at war within five years.
Voicing his concerns just weeks after he stepped down from the top role, Sir Patrick said: ‘If we don’t regrow what are very, very, empty stockpiles at the moment and recapitalise then we risk making conflict an inevitability.’
It comes after his successor, Gen Sir Roland Walker, warned that the UK needed to be able to fight a major war within as little as three years, anticipating that Moscow may seek revenge on the West for supporting Ukraine.
Sir Patrick has also cautioned that Britain must restock its missile supplies, describing the country’s ability to defend itself in the ‘unlikely’ event of an aerial attack as ‘weak’.
Sir Patrick, who was openly critical about cuts to troop numbers during his tenure as army chief, said that more troops were needed as well as weapons.
Speaking on the Money Maze podcast this week, he said: ‘We need to ensure we can operate at scale.
‘That means regrowing our stockpiles, but it also means that the army, which is historically very small at the moment – in an era where we are returning to great power conflict – is capable of being grown rapidly.
He warned that to do so sufficiently would ‘take us between five and ten years.’
As well as needing to deter Russia, Sir Patrick warned that Britain will need to contend with emerging threats elsewhere within the next ten years.
‘There is a risk of an alignment, that ending the war in Ukraine, Russian recapitalisation and China saying the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) needs to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027 creates a point of acute danger in around 2028 or so,’ he said.
‘The best way to avoid that is by ensuring we are ready to fight, able to deter and prevent these conflicts from happening in this decade.’
Since Vladimir Putin’s forces launched their invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the UK has pledged £7.6billion in military assistance.
The UK government is expected to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of national income by 2030, which would mean tens of billions of pounds in extra funding, in an effort to strengthen the military at a time of rising threats globally.
Sir Patrick warned last year that Britain’s donation of 14 Challenger 2 tanks to Kyiv had left ‘a gap in our armoury’, making the armed forces ‘temporarily weaker’.
But he has been steadfast in his support of Kyiv, saying this week that the current focus should be ‘making sure Ukraine can win’.
‘That is not simply about surviving on the battlefield — which is arguably all we have been doing at the moment,’ the 58-year-old said.
‘It is about posing unacceptable threats to Russia which causes Russia and Putin to reconsider.’
Ukraine’s President Zelensky this week accused Britain of ‘slowing down’ support for Ukraine as he demanded the removal of ‘barriers’ in his country’s fight against Russia.
Zelensky has overseen a Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in recent weeks, which he said is aimed at creating a buffer zone to prevent further cross-border attacks by Moscow.
Britain has given the green light for UK-donated weapons to be used on Russian soil as part of Ukraine’s self-defence.
The only exception is Storm Shadow missiles, which remain off limits beyond Ukraine’s borders, but Mr Zelensky said ‘long-range capabilities’ were ‘vital’.
His team has claimed Britain loosening restrictions on the use of the weapons could ‘turn the tide of the war’.