An expert has warned that what they call “European War 3” could continue for most of the rest of this century. Michael Clarke, a Visiting Professor at King’s College London and at the University of Exeter who specialises in defence, called the situation “existential”, and that Russia is pursuing a hybrid conflict by all means up to actual violence.

He said: “I don’t see World War 3 anywhere likely or close, in the sense that people think World War 3 as destruction.” He added that the two previous global conflicts were “universal wars for different reasons”, and today we can see a lot of warfare across the globe, which will “get worse”, but there is nothing to unite them.

Novels speculating about a “coming World War 3” are “all wrong” in this sense, the professor fumed. The expert added: “Where we are in dangerous territory, and increasingly dangerous territory, is that Russia under Putin is committed to long-term beligerence.

“They’ve given up on peaceful coexistence in the West”, Professor Clarke told Sky News.

“There’s this sense that that Russia has got somehow to prevail in Europe, and cast its influence over the rest of Europe, to recover the influence that Moscow had during the Cold War, when it had its own big Russia state… which included Ukraine and Georgia and the Baltic States, plus East Germany and Hungary and Czechoslovakia, as it then was, and Bulgaria.

“That security boundary made Moscow feel safe.” Now, this is 1,000 miles closer to the Russian capital, Professor Clarke pointed out.

He added: “We’re in a sort of a European third war, let’s called it European War 3, which is long-term.

“It’s existential. It’s going to be out there for the foreseeable future, probably most of the rest of this century, one way or another, and, at the moment, the Russians are pursuing it by every means, up to actual violence.”

It comes as the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was marked on Tuesday.

“Insider reports continue to indicate that Russia is uninterested in meaningful peace negotiations and is preparing for a protracted war,” the Institute for the Study of War said in its report on the conflict for Wednesday.

Experts wrote that reports suggest the Kremlin is incorporating a protracted war into its political agenda and its plans for the upcoming elections, including by endorsing candidates who strongly support the war.

It seems that Moscow is planning for the war to continue at a minimum until September, they added, but “likely much longer”.