Army general issues chilling warning about UK’s ability to fight Putin’s Russia | World | News

The British army is too small and weak to be able to fight Russia, according to a senior European army officer.

Vladimir Putin‘s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has forced Western leaders into a rethink of their defence and security policies.

Many EU countries have rushed to boost defence spending that has increased by 16 percent across the bloc since 2022.

In addition some countries like Latvia have reintroduced compulsory military service, while Germany is considering following suite.

The need for more manpower has become transparently clear given the huge military reserves that Russia has been able to call on during its war with Ukraine and the willingness of Putin’s generals to sacrifice the lives of their soldiers in huge numbers.

Yet the UK government seems intent on reducing the number of soldiers in the army from its current 77,450 to 73,000 – its smallest size in 300 years.

In comparison France has over 110,000 soldiers while Germany is growing its total armed forces to over 200,000 personnel.

The reduction in numbers comes despite Rishi Sunak‘s pledge to increase defence spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2030.

The decision to trim the size of the army has caused consternation and concern among army chiefs across Europe.

An EU General said that troop numbers were critical given the new threat posed by Putin’s Russia.

“There is a concern about the British Army,” he told The SUN. “You must have mass, you must have numbers.

“In Ukraine you can see, we must have mass to fight the Russian army.”

A former British Lieutenant Colonel told the Express that Britain was particularly vulnerable to attack by Russia and that its army had never been weaker.

Glen Grant said: “Britain is particularly vulnerable because we’re an island and we rely on all the things like our cables running everywhere.

“And we’re actually quite weak in terms of being able to guard what we’ve got, including Scotland, and able to reinforce and help others.

“I mean, we’ve never been so weak militarily. Maybe between the (World) wars we were, but we’re clearly in a bad place at the moment.”

He urged the UK government to rapidly expand its military reserves and to beef up its defence industry – in particular new investments need to be made in drones and air defence systems to protect the UK from ballistic missile attacks.