How Putin's invasion of Ukraine has made the world SAFER: Ex-RAF chief says ... trends now
The world has 'become a safer place' since Russia invaded Ukraine, a top British defence chief has claimed.
Air Vice-Marshal Sean Bell, who served 32 years in the RAF and commanded 1 (Fighter) Squadron and the Harrier Force, said the rogue state was no longer the threat it once was after two years of war.
The former defence chief added that Putin's barbaric invasion of Ukraine had depleted the Kremlin's forces to such a degree that it was in 'no fit state' to pose a threat to Europe for at least a decade.
And despite the war in Europe, on-going fighting between Israel and Hamas and last week's major drone and missile attack by Iran against Jerusalem, the military analyst insisted the world was not on the brink of a new global conflict.
'Paradoxically, the world has become a safer place since Russia invaded Ukraine,' Air Vice-Marshal Bell told MailOnline.
Russia is no longer the threat it once was following its war in Ukraine, a former RAF commander has said. Pictured: The corpse of a Russian soldier is seeing lying on the streets of Kharkiv on February 27, 2022 - days after Putin's invasion began
Video caught the moment the one of Putin's £228m nuclear bombers was destroyed after being blasted by a Ukrainian missile
Russia has reportedly has lost more than 400,000 soldiers to death or injury in its continuing war against Ukraine, according to Kyiv's approximations
Pictured is Air Vice-Marshal Sean Bell, who has now launched a withering attack against the European countries in Nato who 'weren't doing their bit' and pulling their weight
'We were worried about Russia's military capability – but now Russia is in no fit state to be a threat to Europe for the next 10 years.'
He added: 'We absolutely are not on the verge of World War Three. The war in Gaza will be over. It's evident that nobody wants to see that escalate...The war between Russia and Ukraine will end.'
Russia has reportedly has lost more than 400,000 soldiers to death or injury in its continuing war against Ukraine, according to Kyiv's approximations.
The figure, released by Ukraine's Ministry of Defence earlier this month, suggests a staggering number of Russian casualties in the two years since Vladimir Putin launched the invasion on February 24, 2022.
By comparison, around 15,000 Soviet troops were killed and 53,000 injured in Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan war, which lasted from nine years - from 1979 to 1989. This therefore suggests Russian casualties in Ukraine are around six times greater than those suffered by the Soviets in less than a quarter of the time.
Putin has also reportedly lost almost 6,500 tanks, more than 12,000 armoured vehicles and over
