Former NATO commander warns the alliance must fully back Ukraine now or risk a direct war with Russia
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Tom Porter
May 18, 2023, 19:07 IST
A BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launcher fires towards Russian positions on the frontline near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, on April 23, 2023, amid the Russian invasion on Ukraine.SERGEY SHESTAK/AFP via Getty Images)
An ex-NATO commander warned of the consequences of not increasing support for Ukraine.
Sir Richard Shirreff said NATO could get pulled into the war if it didn't provide full support.
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Former NATO commander Sir Richard Shirreff has warned that unless the West increases its support for Ukraine, it could get pulled into a direct conflict with Russia.
"Either the West doubles down now to give Ukraine the tools it really needs to do the job in a series of sustained counteroffensives, or the West faces — I think NATO faces — the very real possibility in two to three years' time of potentially having to intervene to support the Ukrainians [to] achieve final victory," he said.
"Because there's only one outcome of this; it's got to be victory. This is a war not just against Ukraine; it's a war against the West," he said.
Sir Richard compared the situation to that which took place before the start of World War II, when Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany set out to conquer swathes of Europe.
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"We have to recognize that once again in Europe there is a bloodstained autocrat prepared to inflict unspeakable suffering on peaceful democratic neighbors to further his own imperious ambitions. We've been here before in 1939 to 1945. And we're here again," said Sir Richard.
Leaders in the US and Europe have been wary of providing Ukraine with some of the military aid it has requested, reportedly believing that it could antagonize Russia and lead to a direct conflict with NATO. Russian hardliners have menaced NATO allies with threats of nuclear attacks over their support for Ukraine.
He said the West should agree to Ukrainian requests for F-16 fighter jets to offset Russian superiority in the air, increase defense spending, and boost the the amount of ammunition it supplies to Ukraine.
As things stand, he said, the West is ill-prepared for the worst case scenario — direct conflict with Russia.
"We are a long way short of that, [but] that [new mindset] is simply not happening," he said.
Sir Richard served as NATO's deputy supreme allied commander in Europe, and in 2016 penned a book, '2017: War with Russia: An Urgent Warning from Senior Military Command,' in which he imagines the likely results of a war between Russia and NATO allies.
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