UK has ‘direct line’ to Russia’s war room but it is ‘not as strong’ as wanted, defence chief reveals

‘These lines of communication are not as strong as we would want them to be’, says Admiral Sir Tony Radakin – when asked about how to ‘de-escalate’ conflict

The UK has a “direct line” to Russia’s war room to ease tensions during the Ukraine crisis, a defence chief has revealed – but it is “not as strong” as wanted.

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said the link is being used for direct conversations with Vladimir Putin’s chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, when asked about ways to “de-escalate” the risk of wider conflict.

“We have a line in the Ministry of Defence that goes direct to the Moscow operational headquarters. That’s tested every day,” the head of the armed forces said.

“We’ve used that line for me to, to say to General Gerasimov that we need to speak and I’m waiting for him to come back to me.

“Other countries also have direct lines in, but these lines of communication are not as strong as we would want them to be. And that’s why we’re furthering them as best as we can.”

The admiral was also strikingly more cautious about the risk of nuclear war, after Dominic Raab dismissed Putin’s threats as “rhetoric and brinkmanship”.

“We have got to be very cautious about President Putin’s threats,” he told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme.

The UK is able to detect “warning signs if this was going to start to chart a path towards nuclear escalation”, the defence chief said.

He also delivered the strongest rebuke yet to Liz Truss, after the foreign secretary’s support for Britons – even those without military training – to fight for Ukraine.

“We’ve been very clear that it’s unlawful as well as unhelpful for UK military and for the UK population to start going towards Ukraine in that sense,” the admiral said.

“Support from the UK, support in whatever way you can. But this isn’t really something that you want to rush to in terms of the sound of gunfire. This is about sensible support based in the UK.”

On Ms Truss’s comments, he added: “We can all understand that sentiment and that sentiment needs to be channelled into support for Ukraine.

“But we’re saying as professional military people, that actually that is not necessarily the sensible thing to be doing.”

He also denied it is “inevitable” that Russia succeeds in taking over Ukraine, after it made slower than expected progress in the first 10 days of the invasion.

“No. I think we’ve seen a Russian invasion that is not going well,” the head of the armed forces said.

“I think we’re also seeing a remarkable resistance by Ukraine, both its armed forces and its people.

“We’re also seeing the unity of the whole globe coming together with a cohesive approach, whether that’s economically, diplomatically, culturally, socially, militarily, applying pressure to Russia, and that needs to continue so that Russia stops this invasion.”

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.