Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and wider threats to the UK and its allies share “a lot of similarities” with the three-year run-up to the Second World War, the armed forces minister has said.
Al Carns, a former special forces colonel in the Royal Marines, said Ukraine is on the frontline of Europe’s defences as Vladimir Putin’s full-scale onslaught enters its fifth year.
But he warned Britain is not immune, with Russia attacking the UK and its interests across four different kinds of frontline.
The minister spoke about daily threats in the North Atlantic, the Arctic and cyber attacks, as well as the danger posed by fake news and other forms of disinformation spread online – designed to sow or amplify divisions within UK society or between Britain and its friends.
‘History rhymes’
Asked whether he agreed with comments by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Mr Putin had already started World War Three with his invasion of Ukraine, Mr Carns signalled that he saw similarities between the challenges faced today and the global landscape in the three years running up to the Second World War.
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme,” he said.
“And if you were to go back to, you know, 1936, ’37, ’38… there’s definitely a lot of similarities.
“What I would say is that Ukraine is absolutely the front line of European defence, and they’re doing an absolutely sterling job.”
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The UK’s frontline
While Ukraine is on the frontline of Russia’s conventional military machine, the armed forces minister said the UK is also in Moscow’s sights – though the conflict is raging in a grey zone that sits under the threshold of all-out war.
“A lot of people say that the UK doesn’t have a frontline,” Mr Carns said.
“Well, the reality is we do. It sits in the North Atlantic. It sits in the High North. It sits in cyberspace. And it sits in influence – and I think that is being battled out every day.”
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He described how Russia has various means to inflict harm away from bombs and bullets.
“It’s not through sharp power. It’s through influence, through cyberspace, through industrial espionage,” the minister said.
“It’s through sowing division and discord into this country, into Europe. Drive us apart from the US, apart from our European allies, to fragment and then isolate and defeat.”
