Saturday 18 June 2022 11:22 PM Prepare to fight and beat Russia in a Third World War, Britain's top general ... trends now

Britain's top army general has reportedly warned his troops to prepare 'to fight in Europe once again' in a potential World War Three with Russia. 

General Sir Patrick Sanders, who assumed overall command of the British army on Monday, issued the stark warning earlier this week in which he declared his intention to build the most 'lethal and effective' fighting force possible.

The newly-minted commander of the army told soldiers that they must 'forge an Army capable of fighting alongside our allies and defeating Russia in battle,' according to The Sun.

'We are the generation that must prepare the Army to fight in Europe once again,' the General wrote.

'I am the first Chief of the General Staff since 1941 to take command of the Army in the shadow of a land war in Europe involving a continental power... The scale of the enduring threat from Russia shows we've entered a new era of insecurity.

'It is my singular duty to make our Army as lethal and effective as it can be. The time is now and the opportunity is ours to seize.'

Sanders' statements come as Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a thinly-veiled threat to Kazakhstan and other former Soviet states, insinuating that they risk a similar threat to Ukraine should they oppose the Kremlin.

Putin made the comments in response to a dramatic statement by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who sensationally declared he did not recognise the self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.

Tokayev, sat metres away from the brooding Russian despot at the St Petersburg Economic Forum (SPIEF) yesterday, described the DPR and LPR as 'quasi-state territories'.

'We don't recognise Taiwan, Kosovo, South Ossetia or Abkhazia... we apply this principle to the quasi-state territories, which in our view, are the Luhansk and Donetsk people's republics', the Kazakh President said in a daring defiance of Putin's war in eastern Ukraine.

The Russian President sat quietly, considering Tokayev's comments, before appearing to deliver a calm but quietly menacing warning.

'What is the Soviet Union?' Putin asked rhetorically. 'This is historic Russia.'

He went on to paint Kazakhstan as a nation friendly to Russia, but quickly added: 'The same thing could have happened with Ukraine, but they wouldn't be our allies.'

Maximilian Hess, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told The Telegraph that Putin's retort to Tokayev was a 'clear threat' and argued that Tokayev was reliant on Russian support following widespread riots in Kazakhstan in January, which were only quelled with the help of Russian paratroopers operating under the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) - an eastern security bloc similar to NATO. 

In a lengthy speech at the SPIEF conference, Putin went on to accuse the US of 'playing God' and treating countries like 'colonies' as he brushed off the impact of Western sanctions on Russia's economy.

Amid a lengthy denunciation of America and its allies, Putin, 69, warned 'nothing will be as it used to be' as he delivered his address, which was delayed by 90 minutes after the event suffered a cyber attack.

When he eventually took to the stage, Putin issued a thinly-veiled threat to oligarchs thinking of quitting his regime. 

'It's safer in your own house,' he said. 'Those who didn't want to listen to this have lost millions abroad.' 

He went on to announce that Western allies 'think they have won' and said Moscow's war in Ukraine had become a 'lifesaver for the West to blame all the problems on Russia.' 

He added that the US considers itself 'God's emissary on Earth', and that Western sanctions were founded on a false premise that Russia had no economic sovereignty.

Moving on to focus on his so-called 'special military operation', Putin said the main aim of the incursion was to defend 'our' people in the largely Russian-speaking Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

Putin said the Russian soldiers in the Donbas were also fighting to defend Russia's own 'rights to secure development'.

'The West has fundamentally refused to fulfil its earlier obligations, it turned out to be simply impossible to reach any new agreements with it,' Putin said.

'In the current situation, against a backdrop of increasing risks for us and threats, Russia's decision to conduct a special military operation was forced - difficult, of course, but forced and necessary.'

Ukrainians blast Russian tank and two armoured vehicles with US-donated M777 howitzer as 'fierce battles' rage for eastern city of Severodonetsk US-donated howitzers score kills against a tank and two BMP fighting vehicles   Fierce fighting rages around city of Severodonetsk in the Luhansk region US-gifted howitzers, tow trucks and ammunition making a difference for Ukraine But Russia is still making slow, incremental progress against Ukrainian army 

By WALTER FINCH for MailOnline

Western-made weapons are starting to tell on the battlefields of eastern Ukraine as US-donated howitzers obliterate Russian tanks in the raging battle for Severodonetsk.

A video released by Ukraine's military shows artillery fire destroying a tank and two BMP infantry fighting vehicles as deadly precise shells rain in on them from up to 25 miles away.

Artillerymen of the 81st Airmobile Brigade were operating the US-donated, British-built M777 howitzer on the front lines around the eastern city of Severodonetsk in the Luhansk region.

The United States has already donated more than 100 howitzers to Ukraine, with a further 18 - and tactical vehicles to tow them along with ammunition - included in the latest tranche of military aid valued at $1 billion.

With the recent Ukrainian admission that they are losing 100 men a day, mostly due to concentrated fire by the superior Russian creeping artillery barrages, potent NATO weapons are absolutely essential for the smaller nation to stay in the fight and defend their territory.

In a separate video released by Ukrainian forces last month celebrating the much-loved US howitzers, the words 'From America with love' can be seen scrawled along the barrel of one M777.