Ex-head of British Army: UK needs more defence troops in light of Crimean crisis

Lord Dannatt said the UK should recruit more soldiers in light of the Ukraine and Syria crises and retain 3,000 troops in Germany.

15:27 24 March 2014

Due to the ongoing crisis between Ukraine and Russia in regards to Crimea’s annexation, ex-head of British Army Lord Dannatt said that UK should recruit more soldiers and that it should retain 3,000 troops in Germany to send a message.

He said: "What I'm saying is the strategic circumstances in the world have changed. And perhaps we should consider a pause in reducing our armed services and our capability, and make a small increase.

"It sends a message that actually we take our defence and security seriously and that he [Russian President Vladimir Putin] should think twice before he considers any further expeditions and expansion."

He added that right now, he believes that the UK doesn’t have enough people in the army.

"It's very hard to predict the future; if our defence capability is weak then at some point in the future, we may find that we have wrong-footed ourselves.

"Many people think that 82,000 is too small a regular army for the UK to have, I am certainly one of those."