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Le Pen: EU signed ‘deal with devil' to wipe out European culture

Le Pen: EU signed ‘deal with devil' to wipe out European culture

Telegraph4 hours ago

The EU has signed 'a deal with the devil to flood Europe with migrants, dilute the population and wipe out European culture', Marine Le Pen said on Monday.
Addressing a gathering of European nationalists outside Paris, she claimed Brussels's migration and asylum pact stripped 'states of their most sacred right, that of deciding who enters and who remains on their soil'.
Viktor Orban, Hungary's prime minister, was also among the speakers at the event, which was held to mark the first anniversary of Ms Le Pen's National Rally (RN) coming first in European Parliament elections.
Taking the stage, Mr Orban, who dubbed himself 'Brussels's nightmare', likened EU migration policy to 'an organised exchange of populations to replace the cultural base' of the continent.
He boasted of having been able to 'push back migrants' in Hungary, even if it meant incurring sanctions from Brussels.
'We will not let them destroy our cities, rape our girls and women, kill peaceful citizens,' he told the several thousand present.
Ms Le Pen said a 'woke and ultra-liberal' European Union was a 'graveyard of politically unfulfilled promises'.
Power 'back to the people'
'We don't want to leave the table. We want to finish the game and win, to take power in France and in Europe and give it back to the people,' she told the crowd.
The meeting saw leaders from Patriots of Europe, a Right-wing European parliamentary group, convene in the tiny village of Mormant-sur-Vernisson.
Out of the hamlet's 144 residents, some 90 per cent backed the RN candidate for parliament in the second round of last year's legislative elections.
The attendees included Matteo Salvini, Italy's deputy prime minister and leader of the League party; Santiago Abascal, the leader of Spain's Vox party, and Andrej Babis, the former Czech prime minister.
Ms Le Pen also attacked Mr Macron over apparent security failings after Paris Saint-Germain's win over Inter Milan in the Champions League final in Munich last month.
Two people died and hundreds were arrested across France, including 491 in Paris, as fans celebrated the victory.
'Barbarian hordes can ransack the capital of France with complete impunity from the media and the courts,' she said.
'Who can seriously believe that Emmanuel Macron's France could wage a large-scale war when it is already incapable of managing the chaos that reigns on match nights 200 metres from the Élysée Palace?' she added, referring to the president's tough talk on threats from Russia.
Ms Le Pen, who leads RN in the French parliament, hopes to succeed Mr Macron as president when his second five-year term ends in 2027.
Her ambitions were, however, dealt a major blow in March when she was banned from standing for public office for five years after being found guilty of embezzling EU funds to pay party staff.
Ms Le Pen is appealing the verdict, but RN's likely 'plan B' candidate if she cannot run is the party's president, Jordan Bardella.
He was also present at the event and said: 'We reject the Europe of Ursula von der Leyen... We reject the Europe of Macron... We represent the rebirth of a true Europe.'
Mr Orban promised, as he did when Donald Trump was elected for a second term, to pop the champagne corks should either Ms Le Pen or Mr Bardella clinch the French presidency.
'Without you, we will not be able to occupy Brussels (...) We will not be able to save Hungary from the Brussels guillotine,' he said.
EU pact on migration
The EU's migration pact, which took the brunt of criticism at the RN event, was approved in 2024 and aims to create a common asylum policy at EU level. Critics have said its provisions undermine national sovereignty and are not strong enough to deter illegal migration.
The nationalist gathering sparked uproar among the Left and unions, with some 4,000 people staging a protest in the nearby town of Montargis, according to organisers. They vowed to 'build resistance' and proclaimed the nationalist leaders were 'not welcome'.
'You have here the worst of the racist and xenophobic European far Right that we know only too well,' said French hard-Left MEP Manon Aubry.
RN remains hugely popular and the latest polling suggests it would win more seats in parliament than it currently has if snap elections were held now. Ms Le Pen's electoral ban has, however, reportedly hit morale among its MPs.

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By Deborah Haynes, Sky News security and defence editor"The Russians are signalling that there may be - let's call it what it is - there may be an attack." Fictional UK Home Secretary The warning from the home secretary at an emergency Cobra meeting is stark. The prime minister must decide what to do after the Kremlin deployed a large task force of warships, fighter jets and submarines to the North Atlantic. Russian ships in the Baltic earlier this year. Credit: AP/Russian Defence Ministry The whole of the United Kingdom is within range of their missiles. Russia and the UK are both nuclear-armed powers. President Vladimir Putin has threatened the UK in the past. Pic: AP President Vladimir Putin has threatened the UK in the past. Pic: AP"The best outcome is this is just a show of force. The worst outcome is this is setting a force in order to attack the UK." Chief of the Defence Staff This is the opening scene of a new five-part podcast series from Sky News and Tortoise called The Wargame. It simulates a Russian attack on the UK. Listen to The Wargame on your podcast app The scenario is described as very low likelihood but high impact. That means a low chance of it happening but catastrophic consequences if it did. Image captions Setting up The Wargame... A year in the making, but recorded in just one day, The Wargame explores the reality of the threat that Vladimir Putin's Russia could pose to Britain, its people and normal, everyday life. Listen to Sky's security and defence editor Deborah Haynes outline how the game works in the video above. Inside The Wargame emergency meeting room. The Wargame also tests the true state of the UK's defences and national resilience after decades of cost-saving cuts since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. And the scenario imagines how the UK's allies might respond, in particular the United States: would they mobilise to defend Britain in a crisis? Everything going on in The Wargame was recorded The scenario is based in the near future and pitches a fictional British government against a team of Russia experts in an imagined Kremlin. Rob Johnson, who heads the Changing Character of War Centre at Oxford University, agreed to create the game after I approached him about the idea last year. I said I would find the players and turn the project into a podcast. The Wargame is the kind of exercise that is genuinely tested inside government. The main difference, though, is that nothing discussed in Rob's version is classified. It means we are able to make the whole thing public. A year in the making, but recorded in just one day, The Wargame explores the reality of the threat that Vladimir Putin's Russia could pose to Britain, its people and normal, everyday life. The Wargame also tests the true state of the UK's defences and national resilience after decades of cost-saving cuts since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Listen to Sky's security and defence editor Deborah Haynes outline how The Wargame works And the scenario imagines how the UK's allies might respond, in particular the United States: would they mobilise to defend Britain in a crisis? The scenario is based in the near future and pitches a fictional British government against a team of Russia experts in an imagined Kremlin. Rob Johnson, who heads the Changing Character of War Centre at Oxford University, agreed to create the game after I approached him about the idea last year. Inside The Wargame Cobra room Inside The Wargame Cobra room I said I would find the players and turn the project into a podcast. The Wargame is the kind of exercise that is genuinely tested inside government. The main difference, though, is that nothing discussed in Rob's version is classified. It means we are able to make the whole thing public. Image captions I assembled a cast of former ministers, military and security chiefs and other experts to play the British and Russian governments. No one received any payment for taking part in The Wargame. Former Conservative defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace, who was at the forefront of Britain's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, plays the PM. Jack Straw, who served under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, steps back into the foreign secretary job. Home secretary under Theresa May, Amber Rudd steps back into her old position. The other members of our Cobra team are: Jim Murphy (Labour), a former secretary of state for Scotland, as chancellor. James Heappey (Conservative), previously the armed forces minister, is the defence secretary. Baroness Helena Kennedy Baroness Helena Kennedy Baroness Helena Kennedy (Labour), a barrister and expert on human rights law, agreed to become the attorney general. Lord Mark Sedwill is the national security adviser, a role he held for real from 2017 to 2020. General Sir Richard Barrons plays the role of Chief of the Defence Staff. He is a former senior commander who was a co-author of a major defence review published last week by the government. General Sir Richard Barrons General Sir Richard Barrons Lieutenant General Sir David Capewell, a former chief of joint operations, reprises his role as the UK's warfighting commander. Victorian Mackarness, a communications expert, plays the role of Downing Street press secretary. Image captions Episode 1 of The Wargame is called 'False Flag'. It begins at 5pm on Sunday 5 October, 2025. Listen to a clip from The Wargame podcast in which our fictional PM begins the emergency meeting in the video above. The Wargame's PM Sir Ben Wallace. Ben Wallace, the prime minister, has just called an emergency Cobra meeting after police in Norfolk discover the bodies of two of the Royal Air Force's elite F-35 fighter pilots. They suspect a Russian assassination plot. The attorney general and home secretary look on It comes after a bomb attack devastated a naval base in northern Russia, killing dozens of sailors. The Kremlin says British spies were to blame. London has denied involvement but the Russian side is not listening. Its deployment of a heavily-armed task force to the North Atlantic is an exceptionally aggressive move. The British government must decide what to do next. Episode 1 of The Wargame is called 'False Flag'. It begins at 5pm on Sunday 5 October 2025. Listen to a clip from The Wargame podcast in which our fictional PM begins the fictional emergency meeting Ben Wallace, the prime minister, has just called an emergency Cobra meeting after police in Norfolk discover the bodies of two of the Royal Air Force's elite F-35 fighter pilots. They suspect a Russian assassination plot. It comes after a bomb attack devastated a naval base in northern Russia, killing dozens of sailors. The Kremlin says British spies were to blame. London has denied involvement but the Russian side is not listening. Its deployment of a heavily armed taskforce to the North Atlantic is an exceptionally aggressive move. The British government must decide what to do next. Image captions You might wonder why two news organisations chose to run a wargame. Let me explain. When the Cold War ended, successive governments decided to switch funding away from defence and into peacetime priorities such as health, welfare and economic growth. It was seen as a "peace dividend" following the collapse of the Soviet Union, with politicians and the public gambling on a belief that the threat of war on the homefront was over. The UK is a founding member of NATO. Pic: AP The UK is a founding member of NATO. Pic: AP If things did go wrong, the thinking went, the United States, with its vast and powerful armed forces, would still have our back as part of the NATO alliance. Like most people of my generation - I am 48 - I have a fuzzy memory of the Cold War. But for my entire adult life, people living in Britain have not generally needed to worry about an existential conflict destroying their everyday lives, so public awareness about what that would mean in reality has unsurprisingly lapsed. Russian soldiers ride a T-90M Proryv tank. Pic: AP/Russian Defence Ministry Russian soldiers ride a T-90M Proryv tank. Pic: AP/Russian Defence Ministry By contrast, the credible sense of imminent peril is what enabled heavy investment on defence and deterrence to continue long after the guns in the Second World War fell silent. As an insurance policy, it felt like a bargain compared with the devastating cost of total war. Experts say Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 should have been the wake-up call for the UK and Europe to take defence and national resilience seriously once more. Russian soldiers operate a drone in Ukraine. Pic: AP/Russian Defence Ministry Russian soldiers operate a drone in Ukraine. Pic: AP/Russian Defence Ministry But because this country still feels pretty safe, it's perhaps hard to understand why or even whether it matters. It made me wonder, what if we simulate an emergency and find out how the UK might respond? Whatever the outcome, it would at least bring back to life the reality of the threat. Image captions The home secretary has a question."Do you have any view, prime minister, or perhaps the foreign secretary will, about what the Russians are after? What are they trying to achieve? Is it anything in particular or is it retaliation for an event that took place that we weren't in fact responsible for, but they want to show a response to?" Listen to a clip from The Wargame podcast in which our national security adviser discusses the challenges posed by Russia in the video above. James Heappey playing defence secretary The prime minister replies: "Well, one of the challenges is Russia has a long track record of false flag for the purpose of its own agenda." A false flag can mean an action - like a bombing or an assassination - that is done by one side but blamed on the other to create a fake pretext to attack them. Attribution is also hard, making it difficult for the accused to prove their innocence. The prime minister wants to mobilise the military to do what it can to deter the threat. His military chief recommends deploying the few warships and jets that are available. The defence secretary has two concerns."We will not be able to deploy that amount of force in secret," he says."Secondly, it won't escape the notice of many in the commentariat that what we do deploy is still overmatched by what the Russians have deployed." The home secretary has a question."Do you have any view, prime minister, or perhaps the foreign secretary will, about what the Russians are after? What are they trying to achieve? Is it anything in particular or is it retaliation for an event that took place that we weren't in fact responsible for, but they want to show a response to?" Listen to a clip from The Wargame podcast in which Lord Mark Sedwill discusses the challenges posed by Russia The prime minister replies: "Well, one of the challenges is Russia has a long track record of false flag for the purpose of its own agenda." A false flag can mean an action - like a bombing or an assassination - that is done by one side but blamed on the other to create a fake pretext to attack them. Attribution is also hard, making it difficult for the accused to prove their innocence. James Heappey playing Defence Secretary James Heappey playing Defence Secretary The prime minister wants to mobilise the military to do what it can to deter the threat. His military chief recommends deploying the few warships and jets that are available. The defence secretary has two concerns."We will not be able to deploy that amount of force in secret," he says. "Secondly, it won't escape the notice of many in the commentariat that what we do deploy is still overmatched by what the Russians have deployed." Image captions Rob Johnson explains how his scenario was created."I had to go away and do a bit of research," he says. "What was it like in the Cold War? What capabilities did we have? What were the emergency procedures? What did they look like?""Then I looked at how we could create that sensation inside a room. So we chose a bunker. We also mocked up some documents," he says."We've created some maps… We've got a Russia team.. We had to ask them: what would Russia do?" Our imagined Kremlin is led by Keir Giles, an author and Russia expert, who - like the rest of his team - has long experience of playing the "red team" in wargames. Keir Giles led the fictional Kremlin team Keir Giles led the fictional Kremlin team"Ordinarily when this red team gets together… we run rings around the opposition." This is "partly because Russia has the initiative, partly because Russia has the tools [and] partly because Russia has the will and the determination to cause damage sometimes in ways that the opposition… doesn't imagine before the game actually starts". Listen to The Wargame on your podcast app Image captions Deciding where to run the game was key. We wanted to simulate the government's emergency Cobra meeting, chaired by our fictional prime minister and held in a bunker. We also needed a second room to be a pretend Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) for the military. Finally, we had to create a Kremlin, where our Russian president would assemble with this team. Tortoise Media agreed to turn the basement of their building into the set of The Wargame. Concern from Home Secretary Amber Rudd Concern from Home Secretary Amber Rudd It has a web of corridors that connect to multiple rooms, making the site an ideal venue. The largest underground room was used for the Cobra (Cabinet Office Briefing Room) crisis meetings, with ministers and top officials positioned around a long table. A bank of screens lines the wall at one end of the room. Maps can be displayed on the screens. Your browser does not support this video The foreign secretary and national security advisor in The Wargame The foreign secretary and national security advisor in The Wargame Crucially, they also provide a video link for the Cobra team to request a call with an imagined US secretary of state as well as the head of the NATO alliance whenever they choose. James Shield, a producer at Tortoise, asked Professor Phillips O'Brien, the head of international studies at the University of St Andrews, to be our top American diplomat. Elisabeth Braw, a leading expert on security and defence, plays the NATO chief. The Wargame's NATO Secretary-General, Elisabeth Braw The Wargame's NATO Secretary-General, Elisabeth Braw Across a narrow corridor from the Cobra meeting area is a smaller room, which we pretend is the military headquarters. This is where our chief of joint operations and a team of six advisers, with expertise in defence, security and national resilience, assemble. At the other end of the basement, along a corridor and through two doors, in another fairly large room, we establish the Russia side. Image captions As the person running the show, Rob is the games master, leading what is known as the white cell. He has several helpers who must provide new pieces of information to different players as the game progresses - these are known as "injects". Rob also sits in the main Cobra meeting, taking on the role of chair of the joint intelligence committee, who provides all the intelligence updates. Your browser does not support this video General Sir Richard Barrons as Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Richard Barrons as Chief of the Defence Staff The game is slightly unusual because the Russian red team knows beforehand the main moves they will make. Their primary role is to explain the Kremlin's way of thinking and why it might be taking such actions. By contrast, the British blue team has no idea what is about to happen and must do the best they can to defend Britain. A moment of shock? A moment of shock? To inject a further sense of realism into the three rooms, we mock up news reports to cover moments of drama as they unfold. Katie Gunning, a former BBC newsreader, is the voice of our pretend British rolling news channel, while Valeriy Akimenko, an expert on Russian state communications, will help us craft imagined Russian state media bulletins. Image captions"We are calling on our allies internationally to join with the United Kingdom to defend collectively and to fight back."The message is we are not alone and Russia must understand that they cannot bully, intimidate or strike us without serious consequences." Prime Minister Ben Wallace in The Wargame The Wargame comes at a time when national defence and resilience is back in focus. The UK and its European allies are expected to agree to a big hike in defence spending to keep Donald Trump on side when they gather for a NATO summit later this month. Sir Keir Starmer also published a major review of defence last week that said Britain must rebuild its armed forces and get ready for war because the threat of conflict with a nuclear power like Russia or China is real. Sir Keir Starmer on the deck of the HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier. Pic: PA Sir Keir Starmer on the deck of the HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier. Pic: PA Russia denied posing a danger. Its embassy in London said: "Russia poses no threat to the United Kingdom and its people. "We harbour no aggressive intentions and have no plans to attack Britain. We are not interested in doing so, nor do we need to." Responding to the review's recommendations, the prime minister said the UK will make more submarines, build more weapons factories and buy more missiles. He also pledged to boost the reserve forces, expand a military cadet force and revive wider national resilience. But returning the nation to one that is better prepared for war will be expensive and it will require the whole country to play their part. Whether that happens and how quickly then comes down to choice. The first two episodes of The Wargame are out now. Two more will be released on 17 June and the final episode will be out on 24 June. Click below to follow The Wargame wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to The Wargame on your podcast app Image captions Deborah Haynes speaks to The Wargame participants Deborah Haynes speaks to The Wargame participants CREDITS Reporting: Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor Production: Katy Scholes, defence and security producer Shorthand production: Michael Drummond, foreign news reporter Editing: Alessandra Rizzo, output editor Design: Rachel McCarthy, Stephen Whistance, Fedele Rinaldi, Arianne Cantwell and Eloise Atter, designers Pictures: Reuters, Associated Press, PA The Wargame podcast: Production: James Shield, series producer, Jess Swinburne, development producer and Katy Scholes Sound design and original music: Tom Kinsella Editing: Paul Stanworth, commissioning editor and Jasper Corbett (Tortoise) Executive producers: Sarah Whitehead and David Mapstone Top Built with Shorthand The Wargame podcast: What if Russia attacked the UK? 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By Deborah Haynes, Sky News security and defence editor"The Russians are signalling that there may be - let's call it what it is - there may be an attack." Fictional UK Home Secretary The warning from the home secretary at an emergency Cobra meeting is stark. The prime minister must decide what to do after the Kremlin deployed a large task force of warships, fighter jets and submarines to the North Atlantic. Russian ships in the Baltic earlier this year. Credit: AP/Russian Defence Ministry The whole of the United Kingdom is within range of their missiles. Russia and the UK are both nuclear-armed powers. President Vladimir Putin has threatened the UK in the past. Pic: AP President Vladimir Putin has threatened the UK in the past. Pic: AP"The best outcome is this is just a show of force. The worst outcome is this is setting a force in order to attack the UK." Chief of the Defence Staff This is the opening scene of a new five-part podcast series from Sky News and Tortoise called The Wargame. It simulates a Russian attack on the UK. Listen to The Wargame on your podcast app The scenario is described as very low likelihood but high impact. That means a low chance of it happening but catastrophic consequences if it did. Image captions Setting up The Wargame... A year in the making, but recorded in just one day, The Wargame explores the reality of the threat that Vladimir Putin's Russia could pose to Britain, its people and normal, everyday life. Listen to Sky's security and defence editor Deborah Haynes outline how the game works in the video above. Inside The Wargame emergency meeting room. The Wargame also tests the true state of the UK's defences and national resilience after decades of cost-saving cuts since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. And the scenario imagines how the UK's allies might respond, in particular the United States: would they mobilise to defend Britain in a crisis? Everything going on in The Wargame was recorded The scenario is based in the near future and pitches a fictional British government against a team of Russia experts in an imagined Kremlin. Rob Johnson, who heads the Changing Character of War Centre at Oxford University, agreed to create the game after I approached him about the idea last year. I said I would find the players and turn the project into a podcast. The Wargame is the kind of exercise that is genuinely tested inside government. The main difference, though, is that nothing discussed in Rob's version is classified. It means we are able to make the whole thing public. A year in the making, but recorded in just one day, The Wargame explores the reality of the threat that Vladimir Putin's Russia could pose to Britain, its people and normal, everyday life. The Wargame also tests the true state of the UK's defences and national resilience after decades of cost-saving cuts since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Listen to Sky's security and defence editor Deborah Haynes outline how The Wargame works And the scenario imagines how the UK's allies might respond, in particular the United States: would they mobilise to defend Britain in a crisis? The scenario is based in the near future and pitches a fictional British government against a team of Russia experts in an imagined Kremlin. Rob Johnson, who heads the Changing Character of War Centre at Oxford University, agreed to create the game after I approached him about the idea last year. Inside The Wargame Cobra room Inside The Wargame Cobra room I said I would find the players and turn the project into a podcast. The Wargame is the kind of exercise that is genuinely tested inside government. The main difference, though, is that nothing discussed in Rob's version is classified. It means we are able to make the whole thing public. Image captions I assembled a cast of former ministers, military and security chiefs and other experts to play the British and Russian governments. No one received any payment for taking part in The Wargame. Former Conservative defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace, who was at the forefront of Britain's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, plays the PM. Jack Straw, who served under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, steps back into the foreign secretary job. Home secretary under Theresa May, Amber Rudd steps back into her old position. The other members of our Cobra team are: Jim Murphy (Labour), a former secretary of state for Scotland, as chancellor. James Heappey (Conservative), previously the armed forces minister, is the defence secretary. Baroness Helena Kennedy Baroness Helena Kennedy Baroness Helena Kennedy (Labour), a barrister and expert on human rights law, agreed to become the attorney general. Lord Mark Sedwill is the national security adviser, a role he held for real from 2017 to 2020. General Sir Richard Barrons plays the role of Chief of the Defence Staff. He is a former senior commander who was a co-author of a major defence review published last week by the government. General Sir Richard Barrons General Sir Richard Barrons Lieutenant General Sir David Capewell, a former chief of joint operations, reprises his role as the UK's warfighting commander. Victorian Mackarness, a communications expert, plays the role of Downing Street press secretary. Image captions Episode 1 of The Wargame is called 'False Flag'. It begins at 5pm on Sunday 5 October, 2025. Listen to a clip from The Wargame podcast in which our fictional PM begins the emergency meeting in the video above. The Wargame's PM Sir Ben Wallace. Ben Wallace, the prime minister, has just called an emergency Cobra meeting after police in Norfolk discover the bodies of two of the Royal Air Force's elite F-35 fighter pilots. They suspect a Russian assassination plot. The attorney general and home secretary look on It comes after a bomb attack devastated a naval base in northern Russia, killing dozens of sailors. The Kremlin says British spies were to blame. London has denied involvement but the Russian side is not listening. Its deployment of a heavily-armed task force to the North Atlantic is an exceptionally aggressive move. The British government must decide what to do next. Episode 1 of The Wargame is called 'False Flag'. It begins at 5pm on Sunday 5 October 2025. Listen to a clip from The Wargame podcast in which our fictional PM begins the fictional emergency meeting Ben Wallace, the prime minister, has just called an emergency Cobra meeting after police in Norfolk discover the bodies of two of the Royal Air Force's elite F-35 fighter pilots. They suspect a Russian assassination plot. It comes after a bomb attack devastated a naval base in northern Russia, killing dozens of sailors. The Kremlin says British spies were to blame. London has denied involvement but the Russian side is not listening. Its deployment of a heavily armed taskforce to the North Atlantic is an exceptionally aggressive move. The British government must decide what to do next. Image captions You might wonder why two news organisations chose to run a wargame. Let me explain. When the Cold War ended, successive governments decided to switch funding away from defence and into peacetime priorities such as health, welfare and economic growth. It was seen as a "peace dividend" following the collapse of the Soviet Union, with politicians and the public gambling on a belief that the threat of war on the homefront was over. The UK is a founding member of NATO. Pic: AP The UK is a founding member of NATO. Pic: AP If things did go wrong, the thinking went, the United States, with its vast and powerful armed forces, would still have our back as part of the NATO alliance. Like most people of my generation - I am 48 - I have a fuzzy memory of the Cold War. But for my entire adult life, people living in Britain have not generally needed to worry about an existential conflict destroying their everyday lives, so public awareness about what that would mean in reality has unsurprisingly lapsed. Russian soldiers ride a T-90M Proryv tank. Pic: AP/Russian Defence Ministry Russian soldiers ride a T-90M Proryv tank. Pic: AP/Russian Defence Ministry By contrast, the credible sense of imminent peril is what enabled heavy investment on defence and deterrence to continue long after the guns in the Second World War fell silent. As an insurance policy, it felt like a bargain compared with the devastating cost of total war. Experts say Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 should have been the wake-up call for the UK and Europe to take defence and national resilience seriously once more. Russian soldiers operate a drone in Ukraine. Pic: AP/Russian Defence Ministry Russian soldiers operate a drone in Ukraine. Pic: AP/Russian Defence Ministry But because this country still feels pretty safe, it's perhaps hard to understand why or even whether it matters. It made me wonder, what if we simulate an emergency and find out how the UK might respond? Whatever the outcome, it would at least bring back to life the reality of the threat. Image captions The home secretary has a question."Do you have any view, prime minister, or perhaps the foreign secretary will, about what the Russians are after? What are they trying to achieve? Is it anything in particular or is it retaliation for an event that took place that we weren't in fact responsible for, but they want to show a response to?" Listen to a clip from The Wargame podcast in which our national security adviser discusses the challenges posed by Russia in the video above. James Heappey playing defence secretary The prime minister replies: "Well, one of the challenges is Russia has a long track record of false flag for the purpose of its own agenda." A false flag can mean an action - like a bombing or an assassination - that is done by one side but blamed on the other to create a fake pretext to attack them. Attribution is also hard, making it difficult for the accused to prove their innocence. The prime minister wants to mobilise the military to do what it can to deter the threat. His military chief recommends deploying the few warships and jets that are available. The defence secretary has two concerns."We will not be able to deploy that amount of force in secret," he says."Secondly, it won't escape the notice of many in the commentariat that what we do deploy is still overmatched by what the Russians have deployed." The home secretary has a question."Do you have any view, prime minister, or perhaps the foreign secretary will, about what the Russians are after? What are they trying to achieve? Is it anything in particular or is it retaliation for an event that took place that we weren't in fact responsible for, but they want to show a response to?" Listen to a clip from The Wargame podcast in which Lord Mark Sedwill discusses the challenges posed by Russia The prime minister replies: "Well, one of the challenges is Russia has a long track record of false flag for the purpose of its own agenda." A false flag can mean an action - like a bombing or an assassination - that is done by one side but blamed on the other to create a fake pretext to attack them. Attribution is also hard, making it difficult for the accused to prove their innocence. James Heappey playing Defence Secretary James Heappey playing Defence Secretary The prime minister wants to mobilise the military to do what it can to deter the threat. His military chief recommends deploying the few warships and jets that are available. The defence secretary has two concerns."We will not be able to deploy that amount of force in secret," he says. "Secondly, it won't escape the notice of many in the commentariat that what we do deploy is still overmatched by what the Russians have deployed." Image captions Rob Johnson explains how his scenario was created."I had to go away and do a bit of research," he says. "What was it like in the Cold War? What capabilities did we have? What were the emergency procedures? What did they look like?""Then I looked at how we could create that sensation inside a room. So we chose a bunker. We also mocked up some documents," he says."We've created some maps… We've got a Russia team.. We had to ask them: what would Russia do?" Our imagined Kremlin is led by Keir Giles, an author and Russia expert, who - like the rest of his team - has long experience of playing the "red team" in wargames. Keir Giles led the fictional Kremlin team Keir Giles led the fictional Kremlin team"Ordinarily when this red team gets together… we run rings around the opposition." This is "partly because Russia has the initiative, partly because Russia has the tools [and] partly because Russia has the will and the determination to cause damage sometimes in ways that the opposition… doesn't imagine before the game actually starts". Listen to The Wargame on your podcast app Image captions Deciding where to run the game was key. We wanted to simulate the government's emergency Cobra meeting, chaired by our fictional prime minister and held in a bunker. We also needed a second room to be a pretend Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) for the military. Finally, we had to create a Kremlin, where our Russian president would assemble with this team. Tortoise Media agreed to turn the basement of their building into the set of The Wargame. Concern from Home Secretary Amber Rudd Concern from Home Secretary Amber Rudd It has a web of corridors that connect to multiple rooms, making the site an ideal venue. The largest underground room was used for the Cobra (Cabinet Office Briefing Room) crisis meetings, with ministers and top officials positioned around a long table. A bank of screens lines the wall at one end of the room. Maps can be displayed on the screens. Your browser does not support this video The foreign secretary and national security advisor in The Wargame The foreign secretary and national security advisor in The Wargame Crucially, they also provide a video link for the Cobra team to request a call with an imagined US secretary of state as well as the head of the NATO alliance whenever they choose. James Shield, a producer at Tortoise, asked Professor Phillips O'Brien, the head of international studies at the University of St Andrews, to be our top American diplomat. Elisabeth Braw, a leading expert on security and defence, plays the NATO chief. The Wargame's NATO Secretary-General, Elisabeth Braw The Wargame's NATO Secretary-General, Elisabeth Braw Across a narrow corridor from the Cobra meeting area is a smaller room, which we pretend is the military headquarters. This is where our chief of joint operations and a team of six advisers, with expertise in defence, security and national resilience, assemble. At the other end of the basement, along a corridor and through two doors, in another fairly large room, we establish the Russia side. Image captions As the person running the show, Rob is the games master, leading what is known as the white cell. He has several helpers who must provide new pieces of information to different players as the game progresses - these are known as "injects". Rob also sits in the main Cobra meeting, taking on the role of chair of the joint intelligence committee, who provides all the intelligence updates. Your browser does not support this video General Sir Richard Barrons as Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Richard Barrons as Chief of the Defence Staff The game is slightly unusual because the Russian red team knows beforehand the main moves they will make. Their primary role is to explain the Kremlin's way of thinking and why it might be taking such actions. By contrast, the British blue team has no idea what is about to happen and must do the best they can to defend Britain. A moment of shock? A moment of shock? To inject a further sense of realism into the three rooms, we mock up news reports to cover moments of drama as they unfold. Katie Gunning, a former BBC newsreader, is the voice of our pretend British rolling news channel, while Valeriy Akimenko, an expert on Russian state communications, will help us craft imagined Russian state media bulletins. Image captions"We are calling on our allies internationally to join with the United Kingdom to defend collectively and to fight back."The message is we are not alone and Russia must understand that they cannot bully, intimidate or strike us without serious consequences." Prime Minister Ben Wallace in The Wargame The Wargame comes at a time when national defence and resilience is back in focus. The UK and its European allies are expected to agree to a big hike in defence spending to keep Donald Trump on side when they gather for a NATO summit later this month. Sir Keir Starmer also published a major review of defence last week that said Britain must rebuild its armed forces and get ready for war because the threat of conflict with a nuclear power like Russia or China is real. Sir Keir Starmer on the deck of the HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier. Pic: PA Sir Keir Starmer on the deck of the HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier. Pic: PA Russia denied posing a danger. Its embassy in London said: "Russia poses no threat to the United Kingdom and its people. "We harbour no aggressive intentions and have no plans to attack Britain. We are not interested in doing so, nor do we need to." Responding to the review's recommendations, the prime minister said the UK will make more submarines, build more weapons factories and buy more missiles. He also pledged to boost the reserve forces, expand a military cadet force and revive wider national resilience. But returning the nation to one that is better prepared for war will be expensive and it will require the whole country to play their part. Whether that happens and how quickly then comes down to choice. The first two episodes of The Wargame are out now. Two more will be released on 17 June and the final episode will be out on 24 June. Click below to follow The Wargame wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to The Wargame on your podcast app Image captions Deborah Haynes speaks to The Wargame participants Deborah Haynes speaks to The Wargame participants CREDITS Reporting: Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor Production: Katy Scholes, defence and security producer Shorthand production: Michael Drummond, foreign news reporter Editing: Alessandra Rizzo, output editor Design: Rachel McCarthy, Stephen Whistance, Fedele Rinaldi, Arianne Cantwell and Eloise Atter, designers Pictures: Reuters, Associated Press, PA The Wargame podcast: Production: James Shield, series producer, Jess Swinburne, development producer and Katy Scholes Sound design and original music: Tom Kinsella Editing: Paul Stanworth, commissioning editor and Jasper Corbett (Tortoise) Executive producers: Sarah Whitehead and David Mapstone Top Built with Shorthand The Wargame podcast: What if Russia attacked the UK? This content is provided by The Wargame podcast: What if Russia attacked the UK?, which may be using cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies. You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable The Wargame podcast: What if Russia attacked the UK? cookies or to allow those cookies just once. You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to The Wargame podcast: What if Russia attacked the UK? cookies. To view this content you can use the button below to allow The Wargame podcast: What if Russia attacked the UK? cookies for this session only. Enable Cookies Allow Cookies Once

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By Deborah Haynes, Sky News security and defence editor"The Russians are signalling that there may be - let's call it what it is - there may be an attack." Fictional UK Home Secretary The warning from the home secretary at an emergency Cobra meeting is stark. The prime minister must decide what to do after the Kremlin deployed a large task force of warships, fighter jets and submarines to the North Atlantic. Russian ships in the Baltic earlier this year. Credit: AP/Russian Defence Ministry The whole of the United Kingdom is within range of their missiles. Russia and the UK are both nuclear-armed powers. President Vladimir Putin has threatened the UK in the past. Pic: AP President Vladimir Putin has threatened the UK in the past. Pic: AP"The best outcome is this is just a show of force. The worst outcome is this is setting a force in order to attack the UK." Chief of the Defence Staff This is the opening scene of a new five-part podcast series from Sky News and Tortoise called The Wargame. It simulates a Russian attack on the UK. Listen to The Wargame on your podcast app The scenario is described as very low likelihood but high impact. That means a low chance of it happening but catastrophic consequences if it did. Image captions Setting up The Wargame... A year in the making, but recorded in just one day, The Wargame explores the reality of the threat that Vladimir Putin's Russia could pose to Britain, its people and normal, everyday life. Listen to Sky's security and defence editor Deborah Haynes outline how the game works in the video above. Inside The Wargame emergency meeting room. The Wargame also tests the true state of the UK's defences and national resilience after decades of cost-saving cuts since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. And the scenario imagines how the UK's allies might respond, in particular the United States: would they mobilise to defend Britain in a crisis? Everything going on in The Wargame was recorded The scenario is based in the near future and pitches a fictional British government against a team of Russia experts in an imagined Kremlin. Rob Johnson, who heads the Changing Character of War Centre at Oxford University, agreed to create the game after I approached him about the idea last year. I said I would find the players and turn the project into a podcast. The Wargame is the kind of exercise that is genuinely tested inside government. The main difference, though, is that nothing discussed in Rob's version is classified. It means we are able to make the whole thing public. A year in the making, but recorded in just one day, The Wargame explores the reality of the threat that Vladimir Putin's Russia could pose to Britain, its people and normal, everyday life. The Wargame also tests the true state of the UK's defences and national resilience after decades of cost-saving cuts since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Listen to Sky's security and defence editor Deborah Haynes outline how The Wargame works And the scenario imagines how the UK's allies might respond, in particular the United States: would they mobilise to defend Britain in a crisis? The scenario is based in the near future and pitches a fictional British government against a team of Russia experts in an imagined Kremlin. Rob Johnson, who heads the Changing Character of War Centre at Oxford University, agreed to create the game after I approached him about the idea last year. Inside The Wargame Cobra room Inside The Wargame Cobra room I said I would find the players and turn the project into a podcast. The Wargame is the kind of exercise that is genuinely tested inside government. The main difference, though, is that nothing discussed in Rob's version is classified. It means we are able to make the whole thing public. Image captions I assembled a cast of former ministers, military and security chiefs and other experts to play the British and Russian governments. No one received any payment for taking part in The Wargame. Former Conservative defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace, who was at the forefront of Britain's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, plays the PM. Jack Straw, who served under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, steps back into the foreign secretary job. Home secretary under Theresa May, Amber Rudd steps back into her old position. The other members of our Cobra team are: Jim Murphy (Labour), a former secretary of state for Scotland, as chancellor. James Heappey (Conservative), previously the armed forces minister, is the defence secretary. Baroness Helena Kennedy Baroness Helena Kennedy Baroness Helena Kennedy (Labour), a barrister and expert on human rights law, agreed to become the attorney general. Lord Mark Sedwill is the national security adviser, a role he held for real from 2017 to 2020. General Sir Richard Barrons plays the role of Chief of the Defence Staff. He is a former senior commander who was a co-author of a major defence review published last week by the government. General Sir Richard Barrons General Sir Richard Barrons Lieutenant General Sir David Capewell, a former chief of joint operations, reprises his role as the UK's warfighting commander. Victorian Mackarness, a communications expert, plays the role of Downing Street press secretary. Image captions Episode 1 of The Wargame is called 'False Flag'. It begins at 5pm on Sunday 5 October, 2025. Listen to a clip from The Wargame podcast in which our fictional PM begins the emergency meeting in the video above. The Wargame's PM Sir Ben Wallace. Ben Wallace, the prime minister, has just called an emergency Cobra meeting after police in Norfolk discover the bodies of two of the Royal Air Force's elite F-35 fighter pilots. They suspect a Russian assassination plot. The attorney general and home secretary look on It comes after a bomb attack devastated a naval base in northern Russia, killing dozens of sailors. The Kremlin says British spies were to blame. London has denied involvement but the Russian side is not listening. Its deployment of a heavily-armed task force to the North Atlantic is an exceptionally aggressive move. The British government must decide what to do next. Episode 1 of The Wargame is called 'False Flag'. It begins at 5pm on Sunday 5 October 2025. Listen to a clip from The Wargame podcast in which our fictional PM begins the fictional emergency meeting Ben Wallace, the prime minister, has just called an emergency Cobra meeting after police in Norfolk discover the bodies of two of the Royal Air Force's elite F-35 fighter pilots. They suspect a Russian assassination plot. It comes after a bomb attack devastated a naval base in northern Russia, killing dozens of sailors. The Kremlin says British spies were to blame. London has denied involvement but the Russian side is not listening. Its deployment of a heavily armed taskforce to the North Atlantic is an exceptionally aggressive move. The British government must decide what to do next. Image captions You might wonder why two news organisations chose to run a wargame. Let me explain. When the Cold War ended, successive governments decided to switch funding away from defence and into peacetime priorities such as health, welfare and economic growth. It was seen as a "peace dividend" following the collapse of the Soviet Union, with politicians and the public gambling on a belief that the threat of war on the homefront was over. The UK is a founding member of NATO. Pic: AP The UK is a founding member of NATO. Pic: AP If things did go wrong, the thinking went, the United States, with its vast and powerful armed forces, would still have our back as part of the NATO alliance. Like most people of my generation - I am 48 - I have a fuzzy memory of the Cold War. But for my entire adult life, people living in Britain have not generally needed to worry about an existential conflict destroying their everyday lives, so public awareness about what that would mean in reality has unsurprisingly lapsed. Russian soldiers ride a T-90M Proryv tank. Pic: AP/Russian Defence Ministry Russian soldiers ride a T-90M Proryv tank. Pic: AP/Russian Defence Ministry By contrast, the credible sense of imminent peril is what enabled heavy investment on defence and deterrence to continue long after the guns in the Second World War fell silent. As an insurance policy, it felt like a bargain compared with the devastating cost of total war. Experts say Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 should have been the wake-up call for the UK and Europe to take defence and national resilience seriously once more. Russian soldiers operate a drone in Ukraine. Pic: AP/Russian Defence Ministry Russian soldiers operate a drone in Ukraine. Pic: AP/Russian Defence Ministry But because this country still feels pretty safe, it's perhaps hard to understand why or even whether it matters. It made me wonder, what if we simulate an emergency and find out how the UK might respond? Whatever the outcome, it would at least bring back to life the reality of the threat. Image captions The home secretary has a question."Do you have any view, prime minister, or perhaps the foreign secretary will, about what the Russians are after? What are they trying to achieve? Is it anything in particular or is it retaliation for an event that took place that we weren't in fact responsible for, but they want to show a response to?" Listen to a clip from The Wargame podcast in which our national security adviser discusses the challenges posed by Russia in the video above. James Heappey playing defence secretary The prime minister replies: "Well, one of the challenges is Russia has a long track record of false flag for the purpose of its own agenda." A false flag can mean an action - like a bombing or an assassination - that is done by one side but blamed on the other to create a fake pretext to attack them. Attribution is also hard, making it difficult for the accused to prove their innocence. The prime minister wants to mobilise the military to do what it can to deter the threat. His military chief recommends deploying the few warships and jets that are available. The defence secretary has two concerns."We will not be able to deploy that amount of force in secret," he says."Secondly, it won't escape the notice of many in the commentariat that what we do deploy is still overmatched by what the Russians have deployed." The home secretary has a question."Do you have any view, prime minister, or perhaps the foreign secretary will, about what the Russians are after? What are they trying to achieve? Is it anything in particular or is it retaliation for an event that took place that we weren't in fact responsible for, but they want to show a response to?" Listen to a clip from The Wargame podcast in which Lord Mark Sedwill discusses the challenges posed by Russia The prime minister replies: "Well, one of the challenges is Russia has a long track record of false flag for the purpose of its own agenda." A false flag can mean an action - like a bombing or an assassination - that is done by one side but blamed on the other to create a fake pretext to attack them. Attribution is also hard, making it difficult for the accused to prove their innocence. James Heappey playing Defence Secretary James Heappey playing Defence Secretary The prime minister wants to mobilise the military to do what it can to deter the threat. His military chief recommends deploying the few warships and jets that are available. The defence secretary has two concerns."We will not be able to deploy that amount of force in secret," he says. "Secondly, it won't escape the notice of many in the commentariat that what we do deploy is still overmatched by what the Russians have deployed." Image captions Rob Johnson explains how his scenario was created."I had to go away and do a bit of research," he says. "What was it like in the Cold War? What capabilities did we have? What were the emergency procedures? What did they look like?""Then I looked at how we could create that sensation inside a room. So we chose a bunker. We also mocked up some documents," he says."We've created some maps… We've got a Russia team.. We had to ask them: what would Russia do?" Our imagined Kremlin is led by Keir Giles, an author and Russia expert, who - like the rest of his team - has long experience of playing the "red team" in wargames. Keir Giles led the fictional Kremlin team Keir Giles led the fictional Kremlin team"Ordinarily when this red team gets together… we run rings around the opposition." This is "partly because Russia has the initiative, partly because Russia has the tools [and] partly because Russia has the will and the determination to cause damage sometimes in ways that the opposition… doesn't imagine before the game actually starts". Listen to The Wargame on your podcast app Image captions Deciding where to run the game was key. We wanted to simulate the government's emergency Cobra meeting, chaired by our fictional prime minister and held in a bunker. We also needed a second room to be a pretend Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) for the military. Finally, we had to create a Kremlin, where our Russian president would assemble with this team. Tortoise Media agreed to turn the basement of their building into the set of The Wargame. Concern from Home Secretary Amber Rudd Concern from Home Secretary Amber Rudd It has a web of corridors that connect to multiple rooms, making the site an ideal venue. The largest underground room was used for the Cobra (Cabinet Office Briefing Room) crisis meetings, with ministers and top officials positioned around a long table. A bank of screens lines the wall at one end of the room. Maps can be displayed on the screens. Your browser does not support this video The foreign secretary and national security advisor in The Wargame The foreign secretary and national security advisor in The Wargame Crucially, they also provide a video link for the Cobra team to request a call with an imagined US secretary of state as well as the head of the NATO alliance whenever they choose. James Shield, a producer at Tortoise, asked Professor Phillips O'Brien, the head of international studies at the University of St Andrews, to be our top American diplomat. Elisabeth Braw, a leading expert on security and defence, plays the NATO chief. The Wargame's NATO Secretary-General, Elisabeth Braw The Wargame's NATO Secretary-General, Elisabeth Braw Across a narrow corridor from the Cobra meeting area is a smaller room, which we pretend is the military headquarters. This is where our chief of joint operations and a team of six advisers, with expertise in defence, security and national resilience, assemble. At the other end of the basement, along a corridor and through two doors, in another fairly large room, we establish the Russia side. Image captions As the person running the show, Rob is the games master, leading what is known as the white cell. He has several helpers who must provide new pieces of information to different players as the game progresses - these are known as "injects". Rob also sits in the main Cobra meeting, taking on the role of chair of the joint intelligence committee, who provides all the intelligence updates. Your browser does not support this video General Sir Richard Barrons as Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Richard Barrons as Chief of the Defence Staff The game is slightly unusual because the Russian red team knows beforehand the main moves they will make. Their primary role is to explain the Kremlin's way of thinking and why it might be taking such actions. By contrast, the British blue team has no idea what is about to happen and must do the best they can to defend Britain. A moment of shock? A moment of shock? To inject a further sense of realism into the three rooms, we mock up news reports to cover moments of drama as they unfold. Katie Gunning, a former BBC newsreader, is the voice of our pretend British rolling news channel, while Valeriy Akimenko, an expert on Russian state communications, will help us craft imagined Russian state media bulletins. Image captions"We are calling on our allies internationally to join with the United Kingdom to defend collectively and to fight back."The message is we are not alone and Russia must understand that they cannot bully, intimidate or strike us without serious consequences." Prime Minister Ben Wallace in The Wargame The Wargame comes at a time when national defence and resilience is back in focus. The UK and its European allies are expected to agree to a big hike in defence spending to keep Donald Trump on side when they gather for a NATO summit later this month. Sir Keir Starmer also published a major review of defence last week that said Britain must rebuild its armed forces and get ready for war because the threat of conflict with a nuclear power like Russia or China is real. Sir Keir Starmer on the deck of the HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier. Pic: PA Sir Keir Starmer on the deck of the HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier. Pic: PA Russia denied posing a danger. Its embassy in London said: "Russia poses no threat to the United Kingdom and its people. "We harbour no aggressive intentions and have no plans to attack Britain. We are not interested in doing so, nor do we need to." Responding to the review's recommendations, the prime minister said the UK will make more submarines, build more weapons factories and buy more missiles. He also pledged to boost the reserve forces, expand a military cadet force and revive wider national resilience. But returning the nation to one that is better prepared for war will be expensive and it will require the whole country to play their part. Whether that happens and how quickly then comes down to choice. The first two episodes of The Wargame are out now. Two more will be released on 17 June and the final episode will be out on 24 June. Click below to follow The Wargame wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to The Wargame on your podcast app Image captions Deborah Haynes speaks to The Wargame participants Deborah Haynes speaks to The Wargame participants CREDITS Reporting: Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor Production: Katy Scholes, defence and security producer Shorthand production: Michael Drummond, foreign news reporter Editing: Alessandra Rizzo, output editor Design: Rachel McCarthy, Stephen Whistance, Fedele Rinaldi, Arianne Cantwell and Eloise Atter, designers Pictures: Reuters, Associated Press, PA The Wargame podcast: Production: James Shield, series producer, Jess Swinburne, development producer and Katy Scholes Sound design and original music: Tom Kinsella Editing: Paul Stanworth, commissioning editor and Jasper Corbett (Tortoise) Executive producers: Sarah Whitehead and David Mapstone Top Built with Shorthand The Wargame podcast: What if Russia attacked the UK? This content is provided by The Wargame podcast: What if Russia attacked the UK?, which may be using cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies. You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable The Wargame podcast: What if Russia attacked the UK? cookies or to allow those cookies just once. You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to The Wargame podcast: What if Russia attacked the UK? cookies. To view this content you can use the button below to allow The Wargame podcast: What if Russia attacked the UK? cookies for this session only. Enable Cookies Allow Cookies Once

By Deborah Haynes, Sky News security and defence editor "The Russians are signalling that there may be - let's call it what it is - there may be an attack." Fictional UK Home Secretary The warning from the home secretary at an emergency Cobra meeting is stark. The prime minister must decide what to do after the Kremlin deployed a large task force of warships, fighter jets and submarines to the North Atlantic. The whole of the United Kingdom is within range of their missiles. Russia and the UK are both nuclear-armed powers. "The best outcome is this is just a show of force. The worst outcome is this is setting a force in order to attack the UK." Chief of the Defence Staff This is the opening scene of a new five-part podcast series from Sky News and Tortoise called The Wargame. It simulates a Russian attack on the UK. Listen to The Wargame on your podcast app The scenario is described as very low likelihood but high impact. That means a low chance of it happening but catastrophic consequences if it did. A year in the making, but recorded in just one day, The Wargame explores the reality of the threat that Vladimir Putin's Russia could pose to Britain, its people and normal, everyday life. The Wargame also tests the true state of the UK's defences and national resilience after decades of cost-saving cuts since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. And the scenario imagines how the UK's allies might respond, in particular the United States: would they mobilise to defend Britain in a crisis? The scenario is based in the near future and pitches a fictional British government against a team of Russia experts in an imagined Kremlin. Rob Johnson, who heads the Changing Character of War Centre at Oxford University, agreed to create the game after I approached him about the idea last year. I said I would find the players and turn the project into a podcast. The Wargame is the kind of exercise that is genuinely tested inside government. The main difference, though, is that nothing discussed in Rob's version is classified. It means we are able to make the whole thing public. I assembled a cast of former ministers, military and security chiefs and other experts to play the British and Russian governments. No one received any payment for taking part in The Wargame. Former Conservative defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace, who was at the forefront of Britain's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, plays the PM. Jack Straw, who served under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, steps back into the foreign secretary job. Home secretary under Theresa May, Amber Rudd steps back into her old position. The other members of our Cobra team are: Jim Murphy (Labour), a former secretary of state for Scotland, as chancellor. James Heappey (Conservative), previously the armed forces minister, is the defence secretary. Baroness Helena Kennedy (Labour), a barrister and expert on human rights law, agreed to become the attorney general. Lord Mark Sedwill is the national security adviser, a role he held for real from 2017 to 2020. General Sir Richard Barrons plays the role of Chief of the Defence Staff. He is a former senior commander who was a co-author of a major defence review published last week by the government. Lieutenant General Sir David Capewell, a former chief of joint operations, reprises his role as the UK's warfighting commander. Victorian Mackarness, a communications expert, plays the role of Downing Street press secretary. Episode 1 of The Wargame is called 'False Flag'. It begins at 5pm on Sunday 5 October 2025. Ben Wallace, the prime minister, has just called an emergency Cobra meeting after police in Norfolk discover the bodies of two of the Royal Air Force's elite F-35 fighter pilots. They suspect a Russian assassination plot. It comes after a bomb attack devastated a naval base in northern Russia, killing dozens of sailors. The Kremlin says British spies were to blame. London has denied involvement but the Russian side is not listening. Its deployment of a heavily armed taskforce to the North Atlantic is an exceptionally aggressive move. The British government must decide what to do next. You might wonder why two news organisations chose to run a wargame. Let me explain. When the Cold War ended, successive governments decided to switch funding away from defence and into peacetime priorities such as health, welfare and economic growth. It was seen as a "peace dividend" following the collapse of the Soviet Union, with politicians and the public gambling on a belief that the threat of war on the homefront was over. If things did go wrong, the thinking went, the United States, with its vast and powerful armed forces, would still have our back as part of the NATO alliance. Like most people of my generation - I am 48 - I have a fuzzy memory of the Cold War. But for my entire adult life, people living in Britain have not generally needed to worry about an existential conflict destroying their everyday lives, so public awareness about what that would mean in reality has unsurprisingly lapsed. By contrast, the credible sense of imminent peril is what enabled heavy investment on defence and deterrence to continue long after the guns in the Second World War fell silent. As an insurance policy, it felt like a bargain compared with the devastating cost of total war. Experts say Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 should have been the wake-up call for the UK and Europe to take defence and national resilience seriously once more. But because this country still feels pretty safe, it's perhaps hard to understand why or even whether it matters. It made me wonder, what if we simulate an emergency and find out how the UK might respond? Whatever the outcome, it would at least bring back to life the reality of the threat. The home secretary has a question. "Do you have any view, prime minister, or perhaps the foreign secretary will, about what the Russians are after? What are they trying to achieve? Is it anything in particular or is it retaliation for an event that took place that we weren't in fact responsible for, but they want to show a response to?" The prime minister replies: "Well, one of the challenges is Russia has a long track record of false flag for the purpose of its own agenda." A false flag can mean an action - like a bombing or an assassination - that is done by one side but blamed on the other to create a fake pretext to attack them. Attribution is also hard, making it difficult for the accused to prove their innocence. The prime minister wants to mobilise the military to do what it can to deter the threat. His military chief recommends deploying the few warships and jets that are available. The defence secretary has two concerns. "We will not be able to deploy that amount of force in secret," he says. "Secondly, it won't escape the notice of many in the commentariat that what we do deploy is still overmatched by what the Russians have deployed." Rob Johnson explains how his scenario was created. "I had to go away and do a bit of research," he says. "What was it like in the Cold War? What capabilities did we have? What were the emergency procedures? What did they look like?" "Then I looked at how we could create that sensation inside a room. So we chose a bunker. We also mocked up some documents," he says. "We've created some maps… We've got a Russia team.. We had to ask them: what would Russia do?" Our imagined Kremlin is led by Keir Giles, an author and Russia expert, who - like the rest of his team - has long experience of playing the "red team" in wargames. "Ordinarily when this red team gets together… we run rings around the opposition." This is "partly because Russia has the initiative, partly because Russia has the tools [and] partly because Russia has the will and the determination to cause damage sometimes in ways that the opposition… doesn't imagine before the game actually starts". Listen to The Wargame on your podcast app Deciding where to run the game was key. We wanted to simulate the government's emergency Cobra meeting, chaired by our fictional prime minister and held in a bunker. We also needed a second room to be a pretend Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) for the military. Finally, we had to create a Kremlin, where our Russian president would assemble with this team. Tortoise Media agreed to turn the basement of their building into the set of The Wargame. It has a web of corridors that connect to multiple rooms, making the site an ideal venue. The largest underground room was used for the Cobra (Cabinet Office Briefing Room) crisis meetings, with ministers and top officials positioned around a long table. A bank of screens lines the wall at one end of the room. Maps can be displayed on the screens. Crucially, they also provide a video link for the Cobra team to request a call with an imagined US secretary of state as well as the head of the NATO alliance whenever they choose. James Shield, a producer at Tortoise, asked Professor Phillips O'Brien, the head of international studies at the University of St Andrews, to be our top American diplomat. Elisabeth Braw, a leading expert on security and defence, plays the NATO chief. Across a narrow corridor from the Cobra meeting area is a smaller room, which we pretend is the military headquarters. This is where our chief of joint operations and a team of six advisers, with expertise in defence, security and national resilience, assemble. At the other end of the basement, along a corridor and through two doors, in another fairly large room, we establish the Russia side. As the person running the show, Rob is the games master, leading what is known as the white cell. He has several helpers who must provide new pieces of information to different players as the game progresses - these are known as "injects". Rob also sits in the main Cobra meeting, taking on the role of chair of the joint intelligence committee, who provides all the intelligence updates. The game is slightly unusual because the Russian red team knows beforehand the main moves they will make. Their primary role is to explain the Kremlin's way of thinking and why it might be taking such actions. By contrast, the British blue team has no idea what is about to happen and must do the best they can to defend Britain. To inject a further sense of realism into the three rooms, we mock up news reports to cover moments of drama as they unfold. Katie Gunning, a former BBC newsreader, is the voice of our pretend British rolling news channel, while Valeriy Akimenko, an expert on Russian state communications, will help us craft imagined Russian state media bulletins. "We are calling on our allies internationally to join with the United Kingdom to defend collectively and to fight back. "The message is we are not alone and Russia must understand that they cannot bully, intimidate or strike us without serious consequences." Prime Minister Ben Wallace in The Wargame The Wargame comes at a time when national defence and resilience is back in focus. The UK and its European allies are expected to agree to a big hike in defence spending to keep Donald Trump on side when they gather for a NATO summit later this month. Sir Keir Starmer also published a major review of defence last week that said Britain must rebuild its armed forces and get ready for war because the threat of conflict with a nuclear power like Russia or China is real. Russia denied posing a danger. Its embassy in London said: "Russia poses no threat to the United Kingdom and its people. "We harbour no aggressive intentions and have no plans to attack Britain. We are not interested in doing so, nor do we need to." Responding to the review's recommendations, the prime minister said the UK will make more submarines, build more weapons factories and buy more missiles. He also pledged to boost the reserve forces, expand a military cadet force and revive wider national resilience. But returning the nation to one that is better prepared for war will be expensive and it will require the whole country to play their part. Whether that happens and how quickly then comes down to choice. The first two episodes of The Wargame are out now. Two more will be released on 17 June and the final episode will be out on 24 June. Click below to follow The Wargame wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to The Wargame on your podcast app CREDITS Reporting: Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor Production: Katy Scholes, defence and security producer Shorthand production: Michael Drummond, foreign news reporter Editing: Alessandra Rizzo, output editor Design: Rachel McCarthy, Stephen Whistance, Fedele Rinaldi, Arianne Cantwell and Eloise Atter, designers Pictures: Reuters, Associated Press, PA The Wargame podcast: Production: James Shield, series producer, Jess Swinburne, development producer and Katy Scholes Sound design and original music: Tom Kinsella Editing: Paul Stanworth, commissioning editor and Jasper Corbett (Tortoise) Executive producers: Sarah Whitehead and David Mapstone Top Built with Shorthand

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