Nato fighting Putin ‘is matter of when, not if’ as he’s ‘hell bent on escalation’, former UK general warns

The Nato security alliance faces a stark choice between fighting Putin now or fighting him later, a former senior British military chief has said.

Retired army general, Sir Chris Deverell, revealed he has changed his mind about a no-fly zone over Ukraine and now believes it could be necessary. If imposed it would put Nato aircraft in direct conflict with Russian planes.

Sir Deverell, who until his retirement in 2019 was in charge of military intelligence, cyber and special forces, said that “Putin seems hell bent on escalation.”

He said: “I have been against the imposition of a no-fly zone by Nato in Ukraine, believing that it would surely escalate the conflict.

“But Putin seems hell-bent on escalation. So the question is becoming: does Nato fight him now or fight him later?”

He added, in comments made on Twitter, that the no-fly zone should only be imposed if the West were willing to back it up with on the ground troops.

Sir Deverell added that Putin “will likely respond with nuclear threats”, but said that his threats were likely to be “meaningless”.

He said: “Whatever he can do to us, we can do to him.”

“The risk of course is that Putin is sufficiently mad to prefer a (very!) high scoring draw to a defeat,” he said. “But a) many of those around him may not be equally invested in his plans, and b) there are still possible outcomes that he need not admit as defeat.”

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly called on Western leaders to impose a no-fly zone, warning that “this will become Europe’s problem” if the US and Nato countries don’t act.

So far Mr Zelensky’s calls for a no-fly zone have been met with stiff resistance in the US and the UK because it would mean a direct military conflict with Russia.

British defence secretary Ben Wallace has also argued a no-fly zone would not help Ukraine militarily as it would tip the balance in favour of the Russian troops on the ground.

Republican senator Marco Rubio recently said that setting up a no-fly zone would start “World War III”.

However Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the UK defence select committee, has argued that a no-fly zone should be imposed to prevent barrel bombs being dropped.

Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s former president, has said that military aircraft should be supplied to his country so that Ukrainian pilots can defend their skies.

He told Sky news: “We need to be united. This is not a war against Ukraine, this is a war against the whole West. Against US, against Europe, against the UK.

“We need a plane - a military jet. I’m absolutely confident we have no other way out. We like to have the plane now because we need to protect our airspace.

“We don’t need now the American pilots, we don’t need now the American soldiers - just give us the opportunity to protect you.”

Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba urged Nato to impose a no-fly zone on Monday, saying: “We heroically repel attacks of the Russian armed forces on the ground. However we do have issues with the skies.

“And The Russian air force dominates in the skies, and continues bombing our cities and killing many civilians.”

Mr Kuleba added: “We believe that the rejection of the no-fly zone is based on the lack of confidence in the strengths of Nato as an alliance, because the military might of Nato is bigger compared [with] Russia.”

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.