The top general compares the situation in Ukraine to the crises of 1914 and 1937 and insists that only “citizen armies” will be able to defeat the coming attacks on the West’s way of life.
The head of the British army has warned UK citizens that they must prepare for a war on the scale of the great conflicts of the 20th century and that they themselves may need to mobilize.
Speaking at the International Armored Vehicle Exhibition in London, General Sir Patrick Sanders said the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a sign of things to come, and warned that lessons from previous wars must be stopped before it is too late.
“Our predecessors failed to see the implications of what was called the July Crisis in 1914 and fell into the most dreadful of wars”he indicated. “We cannot afford to make the same mistake today. Ukraine is really important.”
General Patrick Sanders insisted that the potential scale of the conflict in the years to come should not be underestimated.
“This war is not just about the black land of Donbass, nor about the re-establishment of a Russian empire. It is about defeating our system and our way of life on a political, psychological and symbolic level. How we will respond in as a pre-war generation will reverberate in history. Ukrainian bravery buys time, for now”, he adds.
The general also called for a near doubling of the strength of the British army. The UK military in general plans to reverse a long-term recruitment crisis that has seen its numbers dwindle, even as British forces take part in various overseas missions.
He also stressed that while traditional mobilization was important, ordinary British citizens needed to be prepared, if not for total conscription, for a level of civic mobilization not seen in Western Europe since 1945.
In response to his speech, the government insisted that there was no question of calling in the army.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson, Max Blain, reacted by specifying that the government had “no intention” of introducing conscription.
“The British Army is proud of its tradition of a voluntary force. There are no plans to change this”he said.
He added that “engage in hypothetical wars” was not “not useful”.
On the verge of disaster
Patrick Sanders’ comments follow months of worrying warnings from other key NATO members, particularly in continental Europe.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius recently made sweeping calls for war preparedness that would radically reorient the German military after nearly eight decades in a multilateralist defensive mode.
Documents recently leaked to the German newspaper “Bild” revealed that Berlin develops emergency plans with a view to a massive Russian assault against Western Europe, and more particularly against the Baltic States.
The plan, described as an “exercise scenario”, calls for Russia to mount a hybrid war campaign against Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in July this year, using false allegations of discrimination against Russian speakers as a pretext to mass troops on its western borders with EU countries and in Belarus.
According to forecasts in this scenario, the NATO alliance itself would deploy 300,000 troops to Eastern Europe, but not before the beginning of 2025.
The war in Ukraine is currently in a sort of stalemate. With the front line relatively static and forces hunkering down in freezing conditions, long-range missile and drone strikes have taken center stage, with an increasing number of strikes seen on Russian territory.
Kyiv and its allies fear that the supply of foreign arms and munitions to the Ukrainian military will stop, with Republicans in the US Congress blocking the funds the Pentagon needs.