UK defence secretary: NATO must be ready for war with Russia

Britain's defence secretary, Wes Streeting, said on Tuesday that NATO must be prepared for a scenario in which it is at war with Russia, warning that President Vladimir Putin "is testing us and testing NATO's resolve."

Speaking at a news conference in Warsaw alongside his Polish counterpart, Streeting accused Russia of hybrid threats and what he called "state-sponsored terrorism," HotNews reported. He said Putin had given assurances before Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine that proved false. "We must be prepared for a scenario in which the United Kingdom and NATO find ourselves at war with Russia," he said.

Streeting said NATO remained a defensive alliance with no desire for war and "nothing against the Russian people," but that it was ready to defend every inch of NATO territory and would continue supporting Ukraine. He said the more prepared the alliance was to confront Russia, the less likely that scenario became.

He described Poland as one of Britain's biggest and most trusted friends in Europe, and said the two countries' partnership reflected a shared determination that the UK and Poland would not be mere bystanders in the confrontation between freedom and tyranny.

Streeting's warning followed comments two weeks earlier by MI5 director-general Sir Ken McCallum, who called Russia the "number one aggressor" and accused Moscow of waging hybrid warfare while trying to stay below the threshold that could trigger a collective NATO response, even as its military campaign in Ukraine made limited gains at high cost.

Streeting's comments came a day after Romania's intelligence service said it had uncovered a sabotage network coordinated from Russia, which it blamed for a fire on 14 September at the Carfil industrial plant in Brașov, adding that the network's activities were not limited to Romania, according to HotNews.