While Britain’s chief of defense taunted Putin’s attacks progress in the East European nation, he dismissed speculation that the Russian president is “out of order” and that it was “wishful thinking” that he could be assassinated. Admiral Sir Tony Radakin was asked today whether President Putin can be “overthrown” or undergo a “regime change”.
He spoke about the war in Ukraine in an interview on BBC One’s Sunday Morning.
The Admiral is the head of the British Armed Forces and the prime military adviser to the Prime Minister.
He told the BBC: “I think some comments that he’s not feeling well or that someone is actually going to kill him or take him out, I think it’s wishful thinking.
“As military professionals, we see a relatively stable regime in Russia.
“President Putin has managed to crush every opposition. We see a hierarchy invested in President Putin and so no one at the top has the motivation to challenge President Putin, and that’s bleak.”
Admiral Radakin also spoke about his recent visit to Ukraine, saying the Ukrainian military “absolutely” believes it will win the war.
He said: “They see a Russia struggling, a Russia that we believe has lost more than 30 percent of its effectiveness in land combat.”
He says this means 50,000 Russian soldiers were “either killed or injured in the conflict”, and nearly 1,700 Russian tanks were destroyed, in addition to 4,000 armored fighting vehicles belonging to Russia.
He continued: “What you see is a Russia, if we focus on the Donbas, that is less than 10 percent of the territory of Ukraine and we are approaching 150 days.
“Russia is struggling to take that area, and it is struggling because of the courage and determination of the Ukrainian armed forces.”
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The Chief of Defense says that despite Russia’s struggles, the next prime minister should know that Russia is “the biggest threat” the UK currently faces.
He stated: “The biggest threat is Russia, and that is Russia in all its guises if you look at its military.
“The land forces are probably less of a threat in the short term because of that degradation, that exhaustion that we see with their struggle in Ukraine.
“But Russia remains a nuclear power, it has cyber capabilities, it has space capabilities and it has certain programs underwater so it can threaten the underwater cables that allow the world’s information to travel around the world.”
The admiral also spoke about how the future prime minister will be informed about the war in Ukraine.
He explained: “We will always give them a brief overview of the current situation so that they know where we have our forces.”
“It’s dominated by Ukraine and the support we’re providing to Ukraine, but we’re also trying to step back and present a broader threat picture.
“And then we have to remind the Prime Minister of the extraordinary responsibility they have with the UK as a nuclear power, and that is part of the initiation for a new British Prime Minister.”