A former senior British Nato commander has said that Russian military aggression demonstrates that peace and freedom need defending.
Rear Admiral Chris Parry told GB News: “Russia has shown its true spots, it’s an imperial power, it’s a revanchist power.
“It wants to reclaim its status as a great power. Its national morale requires it to bully the rest of Europe…
“We know they’re focused on trying to neutralise the Baltic and the Black Sea as far as threats are concerned, and Ukraine is part of that, but what I always say to people is that peace and freedom don’t keep themselves, they have to be kept.”
Mr Parry was speaking during a discussion on GB News with Alastair Stewart about the security situation in Europe on the anniversary of VE Day.
He also warned that history is threatening to repeat itself with Russia threatening Poland.
He said: “We mustn’t forget the defeat of Japan, Germany and Italy, and the sorts of values and thinking that we thought we consigned to history.
“Totalitarianism is the same wherever you find it, whether you find it on the left or the right and, of course, as President Zelensky has said, totalitarianism lived on behind the Iron Curtain.
“What I find really ironic about the day is we went to war in 1939 with France to liberate Poland, but it took us 50 years to actually liberate Poland in 1989.
“And here we are again with Poland under threat from one of the aggressors in 1939 and that is Russia.”
