Former First Sea Lord Admiral Lord West has issued a stark warning that Russia’s war in Ukraine is edging dangerously close to a wider confrontation with NATO — a scenario he says Moscow would lose, increasing the risk of nuclear escalation.
Speaking on the Lord Speaker’s Corner podcast, Lord West argued that the UK is already “effectively at war” with Russia due to the scale of hybrid attacks and the West’s support for Ukraine.
He said the greatest danger lies in how Moscow might react if faced with defeat in a direct conflict.
“[Russia] would lose it — and the danger with them losing it is, would they then make that stupid mistake of going nuclear?” he cautioned.
Also appearing on the podcast, former NATO secretary general Lord Robertson warned that the West is sleepwalking into danger despite mounting threats.
“We are under-prepared, we’re under-insured, we’re under attack and we’re not safe,” he said, pointing to a rise in cyberattacks and sabotage targeting Europe’s critical infrastructure. He noted that undersea data cables, which carry nearly all global digital traffic, remain especially vulnerable to Russian interference.
“It can’t be a coincidence,” he said of the recent wave of outages. “The organisation of sabotage right across the continent of Europe has undoubtedly been organised by the GRU, the Russian military.”
Robertson added that Russia is increasingly outsourcing its hacking operations to criminal groups, using them as a “contracted” extension of state cyberwarfare.
His warning comes after a catastrophic breach last month in which Russian-linked hackers accessed hundreds of sensitive UK military documents. The files, stolen from a contractor for the Ministry of Defence, were posted on the dark web and contained details of RAF and Royal Navy bases, staff names, and other protected information.
The breach targeted Dodd Group, a maintenance contractor, allowing hackers to bypass the MoD’s otherwise robust cyber defences. The attack is believed to have been carried out by Russian cyber group Lynx.
Leaked documents reportedly include sensitive details about sites such as RAF Lakenheath — home to US F-35 jets and believed to house nuclear assets — RAF Portreath, and RAF Predannack, which hosts the UK’s National Drone Hub. Some files were marked “Controlled” or “Official Sensitive”.
Robertson warned that if the UK fails to strengthen its defences, the consequences will be severe:
“When the lights go out, and the hospitals close down, and the data centres melt… people are going to say ‘why did you not do something about it?’”
