The threat of a “miscalculation” that can lead to an accidental war between Russia and the West is even greater than the Cold War was, a senior British general revealed.
General Sir Nick Carter, who is the head of the British armed forces, shared the warning at the same time that Moscow accused of concentrating troops on the Ukrainian border.
He said that while he hoped there would be no “hot war” with Russia and doubted that President Vladimir Putin would seek one, such an eventuality might not be ruled out.
“We are in a much more competitive world than we were 10 or 15 years ago. And the nature of the festival between states and wonderful powers leads to more wonderful tensions,” Carter told British Times radio on Sunday.
“This tension is the one to be taken into account. “
General Carter said today’s “multipolar world” was far more unpredictable than the “bipolar” rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States that characterized the Cold War in the current part of the twentieth century.
“Then we entered an era where it was unipolar and America was preeminent,” he told Times Radio.
“We’re now in an era where it’s more multipolar, and I think in a multipolar world with other people competing for other goals and on other agendas, there’s a greater threat of tension that leads to the kind of thing we’re talking about. “
A ‘miscalculation’ may lead to war with Russia
He said Russia was now a greater risk to Eastern European nations, which were once components of the Soviet Union or its satellite states, than at any other time in its 8 years on paper or even the Cold War itself.
“A lot of the classic diplomatic equipment and mechanisms that I grew up with with the Cold War no longer exist,” he said.
“And those equipment and mechanisms, there’s a greater threat that those escalations will lead to miscalculations. “
“Hot war” a possibility
Speaking to Sky News UK, he said “in a way” that Russia already saw itself at war with the West to the extent that it was the team at its disposal in a global power struggle.
“The question, of course, is how is war described and I, as a soldier, would have a tendency to describe war as the actual act of fighting and fighting, and I don’t think they need it,” he said.
“They don’t need a hot war. I think they need to verify to achieve their purpose in a more nuanced way.
Asked on the BBC if a hot war is still a risk, General Carter said it may not be ruled out.
“I think we want to be on guard and make sure that deterrence prevails and, critically, we want to make sure that there is unity in the NATO alliance and we don’t allow gaps to occur in our collective position. “
The general said Russia is engaging in a “hybrid game plan” of tactics including disinformation and destabilization and “classic distraction. “
“The concept of pushing migrants towards the borders of the European Union is a classic example of this kind of thing,” he said.
Belarus, near Moscow and known as Europe’s last dictatorship, has allowed thousands of migrants to cross its territory to head to the EU’s external border in Poland.
Several migrants froze to death on the border between Belarus and Poland.
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has been accused of creating the crisis, with Russia’s help, to pressure the EU and avoid additional sanctions.
But Putin defended his ally’s actions.
“Let’s not say where those crises with migrants come from,” he said.
“Is Belarus a pioneer in these problems? No, the reasons were created through western and European countries themselves,” he said over the weekend.
However, Belarus’ risk of blocking Russian fuel materials to the West, which uses fuel pipelines through its territory, was temporarily crushed through Moscow over the weekend.
The Wrath of Russia the West
Moscow has long been the club of the West in former Soviet republics and ex-communist countries, such as Poland.
The EU’s borders now border Russia and NATO forces are founded in countries like Estonia, nations once controlled by Moscow.
Ukraine is another hot spot. A war in 2014 saw two eastern regions fall into the hands of Russian-backed rebels: Crimea, a Russian-speaking region of Ukraine and site of a vital Russian naval base, annexed through Moscow in the same year.
It is now claimed that Russia is concentrating troops near Ukraine, fearing that the invasion, either directly or through the rebels, may be in sight.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that up to 100,000 Russian troops were gathering near Ukraine.
His comments followed the release of a video that gave the impression of showing Russian tanks, armored cars and infantrymen concentrating near the city of Voronezh, three hundred kilometers from the border with Ukraine.
The vehicles, which come with a battalion of major T-80U war tanks, were reportedly shot down from the Moscow region.
Other clips show tanks being transported through exercises near the city, while other footage shows a line of army troop transport trucks traveling on a road in Bryansk about 160 km from the border.
U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the White House as “very concerned” about the possible “attempted repetition” of russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine, which was once a component of the Soviet Union.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov played down Western media reports that Moscow intends to invade Ukraine as a “vacuum and unfounded to incite tensions. “
He said: “Russia does not threaten anyone. The movement of troops in our territory does not worry anyone. “