UK ready to fight Russia in Eastern Europe

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Britain’s armed forces would be ready to fight their Russian counterparts “tonight” if Vladimir Putin invades another Eastern European nation, a top U.K. military chief said.

“If the British Army was asked to fight tonight, it would fight tonight,” Rob Magowan, the deputy chief of the British defense staff, told the House of Commons defense committee. “I don’t think anybody in this room should be under any illusion that if the Russians invaded Eastern Europe tonight, then we would meet them in that fight.”

The striking comments came as MPs asked Magowan on Thursday how many British brigades could get to NATO’s eastern flank in the event of a major escalation by Russia.

Eastern European NATO members including Latvia and Estonia have nervously eyed Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, while Finland, which borders Russia to its east, just this week warned about sabotage of critical infrastructure. NATO rules on collective defence stipulate that an attack on one member is viewed as an attack on all.

Despite Magowan’s tough talk, concerns remain about the U.K.’s military capability in the event of a European escalation.

Britain’s land army is at its smallest size since the 1700s. Just last month, U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey told POLITICO that the state of the armed forces was “far worse than we thought” after his Labour Party entered government over the summer.

Healey announced Wednesday afternoon that the U.K. is axing five warships and a dozen military helicopters and drones as part of a cost-cutting program. The U.K. is currently conducting a Strategic Defense Review.

Magowan told MPs Thursday that the U.K. armed forces have “a range of operational risks and operational strengths,” and said he had spoken before about needing “more lethality.”

The grilling came as the Ministry of Defense announced Thursday that the British army had completed a live firing test of its Archer Mobile Howitzer, an artillery system designed for rapid deployment. It came during 12 days of NATO training in Finland.