A few days after a senior British officer reported that the UK military is ready “even tonight” to respond to a possible Russian attack, the British Veterans Affairs minister painted a different picture.

The British military would be wiped out even within six months if forced to fight a war on the scale of Ukraine, Defence Secretary Allister Carnes warned.

He said a casualty rate similar to that of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would lead to “annihilation” of the military within six to 12 months. He added that this illustrates the need “to quickly build depth and mass in the event of a crisis.”

In comments reported by Sky News, Karnes, a former Marine colonel, said that Russia loses around 1,500 Russian soldiers killed or injured every day.

“In a war of this scale – not a limited intervention, but one similar to Ukraine – our military, for example, at current casualty rates would be exhausted – as part of a larger multinational coalition – in six months to a year,” he said in a speech. He added: “That doesn’t mean we need a bigger army, but it does mean you need to build depth and mass quickly in a crisis.”

British armed forces personnel have been steadily declining over the past 14 years, a decline Labour denounced when in opposition.

Shortly before the election, current Prime Minister Kir Starmer accused the Conservatives of reducing the military so much that it is at its smallest size since Napoleon’s time.