World War 3 warning: ‘US ready to fight to the last Brit’ as NATO and Russia tensions rise

Hungarian-born scholar George Szamuely, a senior research fellow at London’s Global Policy Institute, warned the odds of all-out war between NATO allies and Russia had reached 70 percent amid rising tensions on Russia’s Ukrainian and Black Sea borders and Exercise Trident Juncture – NATO’s massive military exercise in the region. Professor Szamuely said full military conflict would erupt if hostilities escalated to the point where NATO or Russian soldiers were shot and killed.

He told investigative journalism website Consortium News: “Whoever shoots first, the other side will feel compelled to respond, and then there’ll be a war between Russia and NATO or Russia and a NATO nation.

“We don’t know whether NATO would feel compelled to respond as one if Russians fired on soldiers of individual NATO nations—most likely UK soldiers since the UK is sending more of its Special Forces and already has the largest NATO military presence in Ukraine.

“Russia could defeat the UK, but if the US gets involved, all bets are off.”

Prof Szamuely acknowledged it as hard to imagine the US standing and watching Russia defeat British forces.

But he warned: “The US is the US and the UK is the UK. The US might well be ready to fight to the last Brit, much as the US is definitely ready to fight to the last Ukrainian.

“There are already 300 US paratroopers in Ukraine training Ukrainians, but the British would be well advised that words of encouragement from Washington don’t necessarily translate into US willingness to go to war.”

The academic said the chances of conflict had also rose because US President Donald Trump was determined to be the “anti-Obama”.

He said: “Obama, in Trump’s telling, ‘allowed’ Russia to take Crimea and to ‘invade’ Ukraine.

“Therefore, it will be up to Trump to reverse this. Just as he, Trump, reversed Obama’s policy on Iran by walking away from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, otherwise known as the Iran nuclear deal.

“So expect ever-increasing US involvement in Ukraine.”

Three Ukrainian navy vessels were shot at and then captured by Russian Federal Security Service border guards as tensions boiled over on November 25.

Moscow is holding 24 Ukrainian sailors in detention and accused them of illegally crossing Russia’s state border entering its territorial waters and are carrying out dangerous manoeuvres in the Kerch Strait.