Ex-Navy Commander: NATO Can't Defend Against Russia — SkimNews
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- UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham visited Kyiv on August 25 and announced Britain will provide Ukraine with classified blueprints to produce SCALP cruise missiles — a Storm Shadow variant — for long-range strikes into Russian territory.
- Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova declared British military facilities inside and outside Ukraine could become "legitimate targets" in retaliation for Ukrainian strikes using British weapons, accusing the UK of "playing with fire."
- Ukraine's "40-day influence operation," announced by President Zelensky in late June, escalated strikes on unprotected Russian civilian infrastructure — a campaign Putin said "opened Pandora's box," triggering dramatically increased Russian attacks on energy and infrastructure around Kyiv and Odesa.
- French President Macron warned NATO countries "will be targeted" by Russia and said Europeans are ready to defend the continent "at the cost of blood if necessary," while Germany announced a €12 billion arsenal of long-range missiles explicitly for "deterring" Russia.
- Steve Jermy, a retired Royal Navy Commodore and air defense specialist, argues NATO cannot defend against Russian hypersonic or ballistic missiles and that Article 5 would be "meaningless" if the E3 were attacked, with the US unlikely to intervene based on its Iran experience.
- Jermy says European air forces attempting to strike Russia would suffer significant casualties against "the most well-practiced air defense systems in the world," after which Russia would respond with strategic bombardment of military and energy targets in Britain, France, and Germany — mirroring its Ukraine playbook.
Why it matters: Jermy argues that if Russia struck E3 weapons facilities, Article 5 would prove hollow — the US unlikely to intervene based on its Iran experience and European air forces unable to penetrate Russian defenses. That gap between E3 leaders' "blood if necessary" rhetoric and actual capability leaves Britain, France, and Germany exposed to saturation attacks they couldn't repel.
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