Vladimir Putin faces ‘huge cost’ if he threatens other countries, Navy chief warns

In his first interview as First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Ben Key told The Telegraph it is crucial Nato worked to ‘contain’ the invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin.

Vladimir Putin will face a “huge cost” if he invades countries outside of Ukraine, the head of the Royal Navy warned in The Telegraph on Friday, May 6.

Sir Ben Key said it was imperative that Nato nations worked to “contain” the invasion of Ukraine.

“The lessons of history would say that we are in a particularly fragile moment right now, which is why it’s really important that whilst the support we are giving to Ukraine at the moment is to enable them, we have to show in robust and resilient posture across the rest of the contact line with Russia … so that President Putin understands this is not something that he can broaden without huge cost to him and Russia.”

Sir Ben said Nato navies needed to maintain a strong deterrent posture to “counter Putin’s actions and dissuade him from doing more”.

“We represent a threat,” he said. “The Russians effectively tried to exclude any other any other ships from operating in the northern part of the Black Sea and the Ukrainians demonstrated that that was not something that they could do freely.”

He said “ships become valid targets” in war, and the UK needed to be prepared.

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