Ever since the beginning of March, when Sir Keir Starmer chaired what was called the ‘leaders meeting on Ukraine’, I have felt as if I have been occupying some kind of parallel universe. The summit was the genesis of what has become known as the ‘coalition of the willing’, a loose alliance of 31 countries pledged to provide a peacekeeping or ‘reassurance’ force in Ukraine, with the United Kingdom and France making most of the running.
Now, disaster! The Times reports that Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the Defence Staff, asked his European counterparts whether collectively they could generate a force of 64,000 to deploy to Ukraine in the event of a peace settlement. The response was that there was ‘no chance’ of that and that assembling even 25,000 troops would be extremely challenging.
Military assistance to Ukraine also means we are now extremely under-equipped
I could have told you that months ago.
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