A retired British general has warned that the UK is not prepared for a major conflict and may need to introduce conscription as Russia threatens retaliation over Britain’s growing military support for Ukraine.
Sir Richard Shirreff, a former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said the security environment increasingly resembled the period before the First World War, when European powers discussed the prospect of conflict while assuming that a major war remained unlikely.
“In a sense it’s now a bit like those Edwardian summers before 1914, when there was a lot of talk of war but the notion of actually going to war seemed so far-fetched as to be beyond belief and I think that’s where we are at the moment,” he told the BBC.
His comments came after Moscow issued a renewed warning over Britain’s involvement in the war in Ukraine, following reports that British-manufactured long-range drones had been used in strikes deep inside Russian territory.
The Russian Embassy in London warned in August that Britain’s support for Kyiv would have consequences.
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“The United Kingdom is acting as an accomplice and co-perpetrator of the bloody crimes and terrorist attacks committed by Ukrainian neo-Nazis,” it said in a statement on August 17.
“London’s actions will inevitably carry consequences for which it will have to answer … The deeper its involvement in the conflict and the greater its support of Kyiv’s terrorist machinery, the higher the price it will pay.”
Sir Richard said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014 had marked a fundamental change in Europe’s security environment and argued that Britain should examine the conscription systems being expanded elsewhere in Europe.
“An army of 70,000 is simply not going to cut the mustard in the sort of war we are going to have to face. So I don’t see how we could generate the military capability needed without some form of call-up,” he said.
He pointed to Norway, where young people are registered for military service and selected for training, as a potential model.
“There, every school leaver is registered for conscription… and they go and do a year’s training after which they go on to university and when, later, they are competing for jobs, if they’ve got national service on their CV, they’re seen as the best candidates… That’s the sort of thing we should look at.
“The case has to be made honestly by political leaders who must really look the population in the eye and say ‘this has got to be done for us to be secure’.”
The argument comes as European governments reassess the size and structure of their armed forces after more than a decade of Russian military aggression.
Sir Richard said Moscow’s confrontation with the West extended beyond conventional military operations and included efforts to undermine the resilience of NATO members.
“The reality is that Russia believes it’s been at war with NATO since 2014. Not a conventional war, but a war designed to undermine the integrity of target states or alliances.”
He warned that Britain and its allies should prepare for scenarios that might fall short of a conventional Russian attack on NATO territory but could nevertheless test the alliance’s cohesion.
“I would never take the Russians for granted. It would not be beyond the realms of possibility for them to try to unhinge NATO by, for example, attempting to take over Spitsbergen [in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard] or something else indirect.
“So that’s what we need to be prepared for”.
The comments underline the growing debate across Europe over whether existing armed forces are large enough to meet the demands of a potential high-intensity conflict, while governments continue to balance military expansion against competing demands on public finances.
For Britain, the question is particularly acute as the armed forces seek to rebuild stocks of ammunition, expand capabilities and increase readiness after years of constrained defence spending.
Sir Richard’s intervention therefore places conscription back at the centre of Britain’s defence debate — not as a response to an immediate declaration of war, but as part of a wider argument that the country’s military posture needs to reflect a more dangerous European security environment.
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