Confrontation between the United Kingdom and Russia is unavoidable whether Kyiv triumphs or falls, Britain’s top military commander has declared.

General Sir Roly Walker issued the stark assessment as the world marks four years since Vladimir Putin’s forces crossed into Ukraine, warning that Moscow is assembling expanded and more powerful armed forces for escalated warfare.

In an exclusive article penned for this newspaper, the Chief of the General Staff stated he sees no sign that the Kremlin plans to moderate its expansionist agenda.

Yet the Army’s senior officer struck a defiant tone, predicting British victory when conflict arrives and pledging the future “will be on our terms, and our terms alone.”

Relentless troop deployments despite million-plus casualties

Russia has sacrificed upwards of 1.25 million personnel since launching its offensive, yet Moscow continues feeding tens of thousands of fresh conscripts into the killing zones along Ukraine’s defensive positions.

Last night Armed Forces Minister Al Carns invoked pre-Second World War parallels, suggesting current circumstances mirror “1937 or 1938” — the ominous final years before Hitler’s aggression exploded.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky declared Russia has “already started World War Three.”

UK in Moscow’s targeting scope

Sir Roly writes in the Daily Mail: “We, and the West generally, are in the crosshairs of Russia. It’s us on their terms or no deal. This is not going away, however the war in Ukraine ends.

“Unless something changes, I think we are on a collision course with a Russia that is on a war footing, that is replenishing its lost equipment and rearming itself to be a bigger and more lethal set of armed forces.”

According to intelligence from Ukrainian sources, Sir Roly noted, Russia will dismiss British deterrence until witnessing UK weapons manufacturing operating at full wartime capacity.

For that reason, he called for the rebuilding of the UK’s national arsenal.

Veteran special forces commander pledges NATO defence

The highly decorated former SAS officer committed to crushing any Russian attempt to capture NATO member territory.

He said: “Russia started this war by invading Ukraine. It seems to me only they can decide to stop it. We need to continue helping Ukraine. We can also signal to Putin that if he thinks it will be any easier to steal Nato territory then he is even more stupid than we thought. We will never give up what matters to us.”

Sir Keir Starmer will announce expanded Ukrainian support today during a Coalition of the Willing gathering he’s convening.

Simultaneously in Kyiv, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper plans to condemn what she terms “despicable” cultural reprogramming of populations living under Russian occupation.

Moscow’s Russification campaign compels residents to accept Russian citizenship documents, abandon Ukrainian language use, and terminate communication with family members still living in Ukraine-controlled zones.

Staggering equipment and personnel hemorrhaging

Armed Forces minister Al Carns catalogued Russia’s “unimaginable” battlefield costs — a minimum 1.25 million casualties alongside the obliteration of 10,000 armoured fighting vehicles and 4,000 main battle tanks.

Commemorating the invasion’s fourth anniversary, Mr Carns — who served five combat rotations in Afghanistan as a Royal Marine — observed: “I never thought I would see North Korean troops fighting on the border of Europe in my lifetime – which should serve as a warning signal to us all.”

Western intelligence assessments released last night reportedly suggest 2026 represents a potentially critical juncture — marking the first period where Russian military deaths exceed new recruitment numbers.

This demographic reversal carries profound implications given Moscow’s infantry-centric combat doctrine, which relies on massed foot-soldier assaults across exposed terrain toward Ukrainian fortifications. Only after these human-wave attacks do Russian commanders commit mechanised assets during follow-on operations.

One contested front segment witnessed 16,000 Russian fatalities compressed into just fourteen days.

Analysts additionally warn that Russia’s wholesale economic transformation toward military production, combined with the scale of resources already invested, may make disengagement increasingly challenging for the Kremlin even if political will existed.

During BBC interviews, Zelensky characterised Putin as having effectively triggered a third global conflict, elaborating: “Russia wants to impose on the world a different way of life and change the lives people have chosen for themselves.”