Russia poses a “direct threat” to Britain and will be “vengeful” if it loses the war in Ukraine, the outgoing RAF chief warned.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, 55, said the Russian army is a threat to Britain and Moscow’s aggression will only get worse if Vladimir Putin is ousted.
It comes as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticized the West for creating “serious obstacles” in Ukraine and the Kremlin confirmed it had moved tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.
Sir Mike said Russia would be “damaged”, “vengeful” and “brutal” with means to attack Britain through “airstrike, missile strike and underground assault” once Ukraine restores its borders.
His remarks are the first public acknowledgment by a Western military leader of the risk a humiliated Russia could pose to NATO countries after the end of the war in Ukraine.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston (pictured), 55, said the Russian army was a threat to Britain and Moscow’s aggression would only get worse if Vladimir Putin was ousted
Sir Mike said Russia would be ‘damaged’, ‘vengeful’ and ‘brutal’ with means of attacking Britain through ‘airstrike, missile strike and underground attack’ once Ukraine restores its borders
Sir Mike told the Daily Telegraph: “When the Ukraine conflict is over and Ukraine has restored its borders, as it should, we will have a damaged, vengeful and ruthless Russia, whose means of harming us are through airstrikes, missile attacks and underground attacks. attack.
“There is a whole structure and a hierarchy behind Putin. So even if Putin were to disappear from the scene, there are countless others who could replace him who could be just as brutal and mean to their own people as they are to neighboring states.”
He added that Russia would remain a “permanent threat” to the UK and that the Kremlin was prepared to wage a “vicious” war in the name of Russian historical revisionism.
Sir Mike’s warning came after Russian missiles hit a medical clinic in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Friday, killing at least two people, and as Russia blamed Kiev for dozens of attacks on the southern region of Belgorod.
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the conflict in Ukraine with China’s special envoy Li Hui, accusing Ukraine and Western countries of creating “serious obstacles” to the resumption of peace talks.
In Belgorod in southern Russia, the governor said the Ukrainian army was responsible for dozens of artillery, mortar and drone attacks across the region, but there were no casualties.
Russian missiles hit a medical clinic (pictured) in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Friday, killing at least two people as Russia blamed Kiev for dozens of attacks on the southern Belgorod region.
Pictured: the destroyed building of a medical facility, the site of a missile attack, in the city of Dnipro
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video of smoke rising from homeless buildings with windows blown out following the attack that authorities say left 30 people injured, including two boys aged three and six.
The head of the regional military administration, Sergiy Lysak, said Russia hit a residential area with a medical and veterinary clinic and high-rise buildings.
Zelensky said that by providing civilian medical facilities, “Russian terrorists are once again confirming their status as fighters against all that is humane and fair.”
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, on his third visit to Ukraine, condemned the attack as a war crime.
“There was a hospital bomb today. Just over 500 medical facilities have been hit by the Russians. A war crime was committed while I was here, just one of many war crimes,” he said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its attacks on Ukraine targeted weapons depots and all assigned targets were hit.
Ukrainian journalists posted video footage of rescuers helping people with blood on their faces to escape from the clinic through rubble-filled corridors.
The attack came after Russian forces attacked Dnipro earlier this week in a night attack with 16 missiles and 20 attack drones.
The industrial center, which had a population of almost one million before the war, is located about 125 kilometers from the current front line.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, said on Wednesday that Vladimir Putin led Russia to a disastrous failure with his invasion of Ukraine.
Instead of demilitarizing Ukraine — Russia’s main war goal — Putin’s failed strategy has led Kiev to amass “one of the strongest armies in the world” through massive Western supplies, Yevgeny Prigozhin said.
Wagner’s chief was once considered a close ally and confidant of the Russian tyrant and nicknamed Putin’s “chief.” But in the latest of his increasingly frequent outbursts, Prigozhin has scathingly criticized his war strategy.
He then went on to warn of an impending “revolution” in Russia unless changes were made by the Kremlin leadership.
In an astonishing attack on military leaders, he said Russia would reinstate the death penalty and the guilty – he named Defense Ministry Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Defense Staff Valery Gerasimov as responsible for the war crisis – would be “hanged in Red Square” .
Prigozhin blamed both Shoigu and Gerasimov for the loss of more men in Bakhmut than in the entire ten-year Soviet war in Afghanistan from 1979-89, which ultimately led to the collapse of the USSR.
“So the denazification of Ukraine, which we announced – we made Ukraine a nation known to everyone around the world,” he said mocking Putin’s twisted intent to go to war.
“They are like Greeks at their peak, or Romans.”
He told interviewer Konstantin Dolgov – a prominent pro-war blogger: ‘We legitimized Ukraine, it became a country known to everyone.
“As for demilitarization… [this is] indeed a painful issue.
“So if they had 500 tanks at the start, now they have 5,000. If there were 20,000 men who could fight, now there are 400,000. So how exactly did we demilitarize it?
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin warned of impending ‘revolution’ unless changes are made by Kremlin leadership
Prigozhin was once considered a close ally and confidant of Vladimir Putin, but in his latest outburst has delivered scathing criticism of the war strategy.
‘Quite the opposite! We’ve militarized it to the brim.
“I think the Ukrainians are one of the strongest armies in the world today. They have a high level of organization, training, military intelligence.
“They have a variety of ammunition, and what’s more, they can switch between any system — Soviet, NATO, whatever — with the same success. They take their losses philosophically.
“All they do is achieve the highest goal, just like we did during the Great Patriotic War [Second World War].’