GENERAL SIR RICHARD SHIRREFF reveals how he believes WW3 will begin
UPDATED: 08:10 GMT, 22 March 2025
Ceasefire: even the word is ominous. The deal being brokered by America to bring a halt to the battlefield slaughter in Ukraine is not a peace treaty.
It is exactly what it implies – a temporary cessation in the fighting.
Whatever emerges from the negotiations, there can be no lasting peace, not as long as Russia is intent on expansion.
The concessions being forced on Ukraine amount to little more than appeasement.
As Adolf Hitler took advantage of Allied naivety in 1938 at Munich, using the paper-thin treaty negotiated by British PM Neville Chamberlain to buy more time for his war preparations, so Russian dictator Vladimir Putin will use this ceasefire to rebuild his forces and get ready for all-out war with the West.
We don't yet know all the details of the deal with Russia. But one thing is certain: when the Kremlin is ready, Russia will renege in the most bloodthirsty fashion.
I predict there will be war in two years at the outside, unless we do what is needed to deter Russia.
What dictates whether the West can survive is how well prepared we are.
Europe's 'coalition of the willing', urged on by the UK, has pledged to put peacekeeping troops into Ukraine to enforce the ceasefire.
President Donald Trump and his vice-president JD Vance have made it clear the US will do no such thing – there will be no military guarantees from Washington, merely hundreds of American miners overseeing the extraction of up to half a trillion dollars-worth of rare minerals from Ukraine soil.