Britain is at war with Russia already, one of the authors of the
government’s strategic defence review has warned, while arguing
that we can no longer depend on the US as a reliable ally,
Azernews reports.
Dr Fiona Hill, who served as the White House’s chief Russia
adviser during Donald Trump’s first term in office, said the UK is
in “pretty big trouble”, warning that the country is stuck between
“the rock” of Russia and the “hard place” of an increasingly
unreliable US under Mr Trump.
It comes after the government’s strategic defence review –
unveiled last week – found that the armed forces are not ready to
fight opponents like Russia or China.
“Russia has hardened as an adversary in ways that we probably
hadn’t fully anticipated,” Dr Hill told the Guardian, concluding
that “Russia is at war with us”.
Arguing that the Kremlin has been “menacing the UK in various
different ways” for years, she pointed to “the poisonings,
assassinations, sabotage operations, all kinds of cyber-attacks and
influence operations. The sensors that we see that they’re putting
down around critical pipelines, efforts to butcher undersea
cables.”
Unveiling the SDR last week – authored by Dr Hill, Lord
Robertson and General Sir Richard Barrons – defence secretary John
Healey said Britain’s army needed to become “10 times more lethal”
in the face of the “immediate and pressing threat” from Russia and
the rise of China.
“We are in a new era of threat, which demands a new era for UK
defence,” he told MPs.