OREANDA-NEWS. NATO seeks to avoid war with Russia because the alliance is not ready for it. This was stated by the former head of the joint command of the British Armed Forces, General Richard Barrons, reports Independent.

According to him, NATO will have to act if Russian troops take control of most of the territory of Ukraine, if a confrontation between the Russian Federation and one of the allies of the alliance begins. Barrons believes that the second option is the most preferable.

“And it would be easier to do if we had at least some training to act in such circumstances with the necessary speed, but we do not have it,” Barrons said at a hearing in the parliamentary defense committee.

He noted that the UK does not have the necessary defense systems. According to the general, if the British troops had to defend, for example, Estonia, they would have been destroyed in about a week.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he had decided to conduct a military special operation in Ukraine in response to a request for help from the heads of the LPR and DPR.

The decision to conduct the operation was the reason for new sanctions against Russia by the United States and its allies.