The embattled British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, faced with a growing chorus of calls for his resignation because of his connection to the Epstein scandals, delivered a highly bellicose, anti-Russian speech to the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 14.
Britain must be “ready to fight,” Starmer pronounced. Leaders must not dither as “Russia has proved its appetite for aggression… The road ahead is straight and it is clear. We must build our hard power, because that is the currency of the age,” he added. “We must be able to deter aggression, and, yes, if necessary, we must be ready to fight.”
He also announced that the UK would be sending one of its two aircraft carriers to the Arctic this year. “I can announce today that the UK will deploy our carrier strike group to the North Atlantic and the High North this year, led by HMS Prince of Wales, operating alongside the US, Canada and other NATO allies in a powerful show of our commitment to Euro-Atlantic security,” he said, reported AFP. The group will include warships, F-35 jets and helicopters in what has been dubbed “Operation Firecrest,” the ministry of defense said in a statement.
It will be a “powerful show of force ... to deter Russian aggression and protect vital undersea infrastructure… The deployment will include activity under NATO’s Arctic Sentry mission, launched this week, strengthening the Alliance’s security in a region where melting sea ice is opening new routes and increasing threat from hostile state activity,” the ministry said. France has also announced that it will deploy its aircraft carrier group in the region in 2026.
German defense minister Boris Pistorius also warned that Russia and China were “getting ready to project military and economic power” in the Arctic. “In the event of an escalation in Europe, Russia would most likely use its Northern Fleet to open a second front, cut transatlantic supply lines, and threaten both sides of the Atlantic with nuclear submarines,” Pistorius told the Munich conference.
