Former British Army chief General Sir Patrick Sanders has warned that the UK must be prepared for the possibility of war with Russia by 2030.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Sanders described the prospect of a direct conflict with President Putin within the next five years as a “realistic possibility.”
He expressed frustration over the government’s inaction, questioning how many more warning signs are needed before decisive steps are taken.
RELATED: Zelensky warns Russia could attack a NATO member ‘within next five years’
“If Russia stops fighting in Ukraine, you get to a position where within a matter of months they will have the capability to conduct a limited attack on a Nato member that we will be responsible for supporting, and that happens by 2030,” he told the outlet.
Former British Army chief warns of the need to build bomb shelters
The 59-year-old went on to explain that there had been “conversations” about building bomb shelters to protect civilians in the case of an attack, but that they had been unsuccessful.
“It always came down to a conversation of it being too costly and not a high enough priority and the threat didn’t feel sufficiently imminent or serious to make it worth it,” Sanders explained.
“I don’t know what more signals we need for us to realise that if we don’t act now and we don’t act in the next five years to increase our resilience … I don’t know what more is needed.
He urged the UK to change its approach to be more similar to countries in the north and east of Europe, such as Estonia, Finland and Poland.
“Take the countries that are very alive to the threat – Estonia, Poland, the Nordics – governments there take a really proactive, serious approach to making sure the population realise that they could be attacked at almost any time.
“And so they give them a set of instructions on how to prepare for the consequences of that – loss of power, loss of fuel, storing food, they encourage them to have their own defensive bunkers, whether that’s in cellars or civil defence – they encourage people to volunteer for civil defence roles to protect key bits of infrastructure.”
The former British Army chief, who stepped down last summer, said that funding for the UK’s air defences is “much lower” than it needs to be.
Although Sanders does not believe Britain needs an Israeli-style Iron Dome air defence system, he said “similar protection” to detect threats and protect civilians was needed as part of the “next big evolution” of the military.
“At the moment, the British Army is too small to survive more than the first few months.”
Sanders also warned that British Army personnel numbers are too low.
“At the moment, the British Army is too small to survive more than the first few months of an intensive engagement, and we’re going to need more,” he said.
“Now the first place you go to are the reserves, but the reserves are also too small. Thirty thousand reserves still only takes you to an army of 100,000. You know, I joined an Army in the Cold War that was about 140,000 regulars, and on top of that, a much larger reserve.”
Under the previous government, British troop numbers were cut to their lowest since Napoleonic times, being cut from 80,000 in 2020 to 72,500 in 2025.
He added that the fact the recently published Strategic Defence Review “didn’t touch on this at all” was disappointing.
“We now need to wake up and realise that that world has gone,” Sanders told The Telegraph.
“The world has become as dangerous, if not more dangerous, than it was in the Cold War and so I always worry about the layers of security we have, but I worry more about our resilience, our ability to recover from things, from strikes, to protect our civilian population, to make sure the civilian population understands that these are no longer things that happen elsewhere, they could happen in the UK.”