Russia poses a “direct threat” to Britain and will be “vindictive” if it loses the war in Ukraine, the outgoing RAF chief has warned.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, 55, said the Russian military was a threat to Britain and Moscow’s aggression would only get worse if Vladimir Putin was ousted.
It comes as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticized the West for creating “serious obstacles” in Ukraine and the Kremlin confirmed it had transferred tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.
Sir Mike said Russia would be ‘damaged’, ‘vindictive’ and ‘brutal’ with means to attack Britain through ‘air attack, missile attack and underground attack’ once Ukraine will have reestablished 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 military 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’, ‘vindictive’ and ‘brutal’ with means to attack Britain through ‘air attack, missile attack and underground attack’ once Ukraine will have reestablished its borders.
Sir Mike told the Daily Telegraph: ‘When the Ukrainian conflict is over and Ukraine restores its borders, as it should, we will have a damaged, vindictive and brutal Russia, whose means of harming us are air strikes , missile attacks and basement attack.
“There is a whole structure and 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 vicious towards their own people and neighboring states.
He added that Russia would continue to be an “enduring threat” to the UK and that the Kremlin was prepared to wage a “brutal” war in the name of Russian historical revisionism.
Sir Mike’s warning came after Russian missiles hit a medical clinic in the central Ukrainian town of Dnipro on Friday, killing at least two people, and Russia blamed Kiev for dozens of strikes in its southern region of Belgorod.
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the Ukrainian conflict with Chinese 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 military was responsible for dozens of artillery, mortar and drone attacks in the area, but reported 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 strikes in its southern region of Belgorod
Pictured: The destroyed building of a medical facility, the site of a missile strike, in the city of Dnipro
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released video of smoke billowing from roofless buildings with blown windows after the attack which authorities said left 30 people injured, including two boys aged three and six.
Regional military administration chief Sergiy Lysak said Russia had hit a residential area with a medical and veterinary clinic and high-rise buildings.
Zelensky said that by striking civilian medical facilities, “Russian terrorists are once again confirming their status as fighters against all that is humane and honest.”
US Senator Lindsey Graham, on her third visit to Ukraine, condemned the attack as a war crime.
“There was a bomb in the hospital today. Just over 500 medical facilities were 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 strikes against Ukraine targeted arms depots and all assigned targets were hit.
Ukrainian journalists posted video footage of rescuers helping people with blood on their faces escape the clinic through rubble-filled corridors.
The attack came after Russian forces targeted Dnipro earlier this week in a night strike with 16 missiles and 20 attack drones.
The industrial hub, which had a population of nearly one million before the war, is about 78 miles from the present front line.
On Wednesday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, said Vladimir Putin had led Russia to a miserable failure with its invasion of Ukraine.
Far from demilitarizing Ukraine – Russia’s main war objective – Putin’s botched strategy has seen Kiev amass “one of the strongest armies in the world” through massive Western supplies, Yevgeny Prigozhin said.
Chef Wagner was once considered a close ally and confidant of the Russian tyrant and had been dubbed Putin’s “boss”. But in the latest of his increasingly frequent outbursts, Prigozhin delivered a devastating critique of his war strategy.
He then warned of an impending “revolution” in Russia unless changes are made by Kremlin leaders.
In a stunning attack on military leaders, he said Russia would reinstate the death penalty and that the culprits – he named Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the Defense Staff Valery Gerasimov as responsible of the crisis of war – would be “hanged in Red Square”.
Prigozhin accused both Shoigu and Gerasimov of losing more men at Bakhmut than during the entire ten-year Soviet war in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, 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 in the world,” he said, mocking Putin’s distorted goal of go to war.
“They are like the Greeks in their heyday, or the 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] a painful question indeed.
“So if they initially had 500 tanks, now they have 5,000.” If there were 20,000 men capable of fighting, there are now 400,000. So how exactly did we demilitarize it?
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin warned of impending ‘revolution’ unless changes are made by Kremlin leaders
Prigozhin was once considered a close ally and confidant of Vladimir Putin, but delivered a devastating critique of war strategy in his latest outburst
‘Rather the opposite! We have militarized it to the brim.
“I think today’s Ukrainians are one of the strongest armies in the world. They have high levels of organization, training, military intelligence.
“They have various ammunition and what’s more, they are able to switch between any system – Soviet, NATO, whatever – with equal success.” They take their losses philosophically.
“All they do is achieve the ultimate goal, just like us during the Great Patriotic War [Second World War].’
