Listen: Keir Starmer refuses to rule out war with Russia

Starmer refuses to rule out war with RussiaCredit: BBC 4

Transcript

00:00Preparing for conflict you're absolutely open about. It is more than a phrase war ready, isn't it?

00:04The head of the British Army, General Sir Rowley Walker, said just last year,

00:09we need to be prepared to fight a war within three years. That would be two years now.

00:14The leading German military figure, General Carsten Breuer, told the BBC yesterday

00:19the Russians could invade another part of NATO's eastern border within the next four years.

00:25And he specified where he thought that could happen. Are you saying that under your premiership,

00:31you might, for example, have to send British troops to fight, to risk their lives,

00:36possibly to die in defence of, say, Lithuania?

00:39I very much hope not. And in order to make sure that that isn't the case, we need to prepare.

00:48But we cannot ignore the threat that Russia poses. We've seen what's happened in Ukraine

00:54just over three and a half, three years ago, those tanks rolled across a border,

01:00something I think all of us thought we wouldn't really see in our lifetimes,

01:03the invasion of a European country. Russia has shown in recent weeks that it's not serious about

01:11peace, and we have to be ready.

01:14I hope so.