Nato tells commanders of world’s armies: Prepare to defend your allies

Nato has ordered commanders to be ready to defend allied land after Vladimir Putin ‘chose a path of bloodshed and destruction’ by launching an invasion of Ukraine.

The alliance has previously ruled out military action as Ukraine is not a member, instead vowing to unleash an unprecedented package of sanctions.

But ‘graduated response plans’ were activated today amid fears Vladimir Putin may be looking to go one step further and even piece back together the Soviet Union.

Hundreds of warplanes and ships have been placed on alert, while troop numbers on Nato’s eastern flank have been bolstered as a precaution.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said ‘peace on our continent has been shattered’ as Russian troops targeted Ukraine by land and, air and sea this morning.

But he added that there were no NATO troops in the country, saying: ‘What we do is defensive.’

Combat units are likely to be created in Romania and Bulgaria, and potentially Hungary and Slovakia – similar to those already set up in the Baltic states and Poland.

‘Russia is using force to try to rewrite history, and deny Ukraine its free and independent path’, Mr Stoltenberg said. ‘This is a deliberate, cold-blooded and long-planned invasion.’

In a dark warning, Gen Sir Richard Shirreff, a former senior British army officer, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘Absolutely there is a possibility that we as a nation will be at war with Russia. 

‘Because if Russia puts one boot-step across Nato territory, we are all at war with Russia – every single member of the Nato alliance.

‘We in this country must recognise that our security starts not on the white cliffs of Dover – it starts in the forests of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.’

In a chilling message to the West this morning, Putin said anyone who tried to interfere with his invasion of Ukraine ‘will face consequences greater than any you have faced in history.’

Hundreds are already feared dead in the attack, with missile strikes and explosions reported across the country.

Russian forces are trying to seize the Chernobyl nuclear plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.

President of Ukraine Volodymr Zelensky said his troops are fighting to prevent a repeat of the radioactive disaster which struck the area in 1986.

‘Our soldiers are giving their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 does not happen again,’ he wrote.

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