Russian tanks launch 'INVASION' on British soil as 'Putin’s forces' storm Salisbury Plain
RUSSIAN T-72 tanks roar into view as elite Spetsnaz troops take up their positions in a major offensive on British soil.
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These are the chilling war games executed by British military strategists as tensions between Moscow and the West heat up and revealed in new pictures seen for the first time today.
The dramatic exercise on Salisbury Plain saw UK armoured vehicles tackle Russian tanks in a life-like battle to simulate the Kremlin’s forces invading a Baltic state.
Russian T55 and T72 battle tanks came barrel-to-barrel with British Warrior tracked vehicles near the aptly-named Warminster.
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The heavy machinery was backed up by allied infantry and Russian special forces played by British troops.
The enemy force was clad in the plain green uniforms synonymous with Vladimir Putin’s feared special forces Spetsnaz as well as the blue and grey fatigues of Russia’s specialist military police.
The level of detail suggested the drill was aimed specifically at testing the army’s response to another act of Russian aggression in eastern Europe.
Russian army kit was also on display during the drills, including the AK47 assault rifles which are issued to every Russian recruit and the face masks now associated with the soldiers who illegally annexed Crimea in 2014.
General Sir Richard Shirreff, an ex-Nato Deputy Supreme Commander Europe, said the drill was clearly planned to address the increasing threat from Moscow.
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Writing in the Mail on Sunday, he said: “This demonstration on Salisbury Plain is exactly what I expect the Army to be doing, and obviously they’ve thought it through.
“Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia are no backwater. Rather they are the new front line in a very dangerous world.”
Britain is deploying hundreds of troops and aircraft to the Baltics to deter Russia from launching another Crimea-style offensive.
Sir Richard added: “What you’re seeing on Salisbury Plain is a response to a very serious conventional warfare threat, because, don’t forget, the Russians by their own admission have formed three divisions in their Western Military District, which is right on the doorstep of the Baltic states.
“That is a really significant force, while Putin also continues to call snap exercises with immediate call-ups of as many as 40,000 troops at a time to demonstrate their readiness for war.”
