The Minister for Veterans at the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense, Alistair Carns, said this Wednesday (4) that the country’s armed forces would be defeated within a period of “six months to a year” if the British were involved in a major war. scale, such as that between Ukraine and Russia since February 2022.
According to information from broadcaster Sky News, Carns made the warning in a speech at a conference on military reserves at the Royal United Services Institute, in London.
The minister stated that the average number of casualties suffered by Russian forces in Ukraine (dead and injured) has been around 1,500 soldiers per day, but that, with Russia’s ability to mobilize reservists, the Kremlin is preparing to send “his third army” to the neighboring country.
“In a full-scale war, not a limited intervention but one similar to that in Ukraine, our army, for example, at current (Russian) casualty rates, would be exhausted, as part of a broader multinational coalition, within six months a year,” Carns said.
In November, in response to a request for information from MP Rupert Lowe of the right-wing nationalist Reform UK party, the Ministry of Defense reported that the number of combat-ready troops in the country’s armed forces had fallen from 74,966 in 2020 to 70,290 in 2024.
“This does not mean that we need a bigger army, but that we need to generate depth and mass quickly in the event of a crisis”, argued the minister, who warned of the need for the United Kingdom to prepare to mobilize reservists more quickly.
“Reserves are critical, absolutely central, to this process. Without them, we cannot generate mass, we cannot fulfill the full range of defense tasks,” said Carns.
The finding of a military gap in the United Kingdom comes at a time when there is speculation about the country’s participation in the war in Ukraine.
This week, a senior NATO official told Radio Free Europe that France and the United Kingdom are studying options to help Ukraine in possible peace talks with Russia, which would include sending troops to monitor a ceasefire in Ukraine. along the contact line.