Rob Magowan told MPs the British Army ‘would fight tonight’ if asked amid rising tensions with Russia.
LONDON — 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 Thursday.
“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 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.
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