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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](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fall-logos-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fsky.com.png&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
Sky News
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Sky News
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
Russia Today
5 days ago
- General
- Russia Today
Trump views Zelensky as ‘bad guy'
US President Donald Trump is frustrated with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, seeing him as a 'bad guy' who is pushing the world closer to nuclear conflict, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing sources. Unnamed Trump advisers told the NYT that the president is 'exasperated' with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelensky, but 'reserves special animosity' for the Ukrainian leader, who he has publicly criticized on several occasions. Although Trump has said it is 'understandable' that Ukraine wants to keep fighting, his stance toward Zelensky is notably harsher than toward Putin, the report says. The US president reportedly tends to be more deferential to his Russian counterpart, and previously believed that their 'very, very good relationship' would help end the conflict. Because of this, he has thus far refrained from imposing new sanctions on Moscow. On Wednesday, the two leaders held a 75-minute phone conversation in which Trump said they discussed Ukraine's recent attack on Russian airbases that reportedly host strategic aircraft. 'President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields,' Trump said. The Kremlin confirmed the conversation. Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said Putin informed Trump of Ukraine's efforts to derail peace talks between Moscow and Kiev, including 'terrorist' attacks on civilian targets. Ushakov was apparently referring to incidents of railroad sabotage in the regions of Bryansk and Kursk in which seven people died and more than 100 were injured. Following the call, Zelensky posted a statement on Telegram, saying: 'If the world reacts weakly to Putin's threats, then he perceives this as the world's readiness to turn a blind eye to his actions… If the strong do not stop Putin, it means that they share responsibility with him.' Trump previously engaged in a public spat with Zelensky when the two met at the White House in late February. At the time, the US president accused Zelensky of 'gambling with World War III,' and of being 'disrespectful' and ungrateful for American support.
The Sun
06-05-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Nuclear strikes, secret bunkers for Royals, & massive cyber attacks… how Britain is secretly bracing for war with Russia
BRITAIN is bracing for a devastating Russian offensive that could involve nuclear strikes and crippling cyber attacks as amid fears the country is not ready war. Government officials are racing to update decades-old contingency plans to help the country's defence stand back on its feet. 4 4 4 4 The classified "home defence plan" would lay out how Downing Street will respond if Vladimir Putin declares war on the UK, including putting the Royal Family into bunkers. Ministers worry Britain could be outfought by Russia on the battlefield, but also poorly defended at home as things stand. Experts have warned that the country's national infrastructure is vulnerable ahead of the release of Labour's Strategic Defence Review - an examination of the Armed Forces. As military warfare has evolved in the past two decades, fears are that Putin could launch a combination of attacks, including conventional ballistic missile strikes, sabotage and the latest tactic in the Russian playbook - cyberwarfare. But Britain, which is just beginning to review and revise its security and contingency plans for the first time in more than 20 years - is feared not to be fully prepared to go to war against the Russians. Former Nato commander Colonel Hamish De Bretton-Gordon told The Sun: "Britain is very much in the sights of Putin's derision, and we are the ones likely to be attacked first. "Britain really has got to dust off its contingency plans. Over 20 years of neglect, and we understand that's exactly what this report is about at the moment." Retired military officer Colonel Richard Kemp, who was working in the Cabinet Office when the contingency plans were last updated, told The Sun: "Contingency plans like this should be updated frequently. Twenty years is far too long, especially given the radically changed threat picture. "Putin has said Britain is in his crosshairs since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. "Even before then, he proved he was willing to attack this country, including with a nerve agent attack in Salisbury in 2018. We should take him seriously." Putin 'offers to FREEZE Ukraine frontline' as Trump's 7-point peace plan 'to let Russia keep seized land' revealed The classified plan by the Cabinet Office's Resilience Directorate - which was last updated in 2005 - would set out war strategies in the event of a catastrophic attack by the Russians, which could well involve tactical and strategic nuclear weapons. The plan is based on the War Book, a Cold War dossier of instructions for government response to nuclear attacks. Under such plans, Britain could be divided into 12 zones, each governed by Cabinet ministers, and food rationed. The plans will include scenarios like widespread sabotage and crippling cyber warfare, which were seen as a limited threat back when the document was last updated. It will also direct the PM on how to run a wartime government, as well as strategies for travel networks, courts and the postal system, reports the Daily Telegraph. Although the highly-classified document is expected to never be revealed in the public domain, military experts suggest what could be changed to prepare us for a potential war against the Russians. Colonel Bretton-Gordon said that cyber attacks will be given a major chunk of attention in the latest round of updates. He believes the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) would be given additional funding to improve the existing measures against cyber attackers. There is particular concern for the country's five active nuclear power stations, which if damaged by strikes, could release radioactive material across the country, resulting in long-term impact. In the event of an all-out war against Vladimir Putin, members of the Royal family and key government officials will be sent to secret hideout bunkers to protect them. Food circulation and modern logistics systems will be made more robust to ensure essential items can reach people whenever there is a need. And the public will be made more aware of their wartime duties. Bretton-Gordon added: "Plans will be to make sure our critical infrastructure is as secure as it can be. "There will be contingency plans. If one nuclear power station goes down, then other power infrastructure can take up the slack. "During the Cold War, the people probably had a lot of training and expertise to deal with contaminated nuclear casualties, but the situation has probably changed now. "These are the sort of things that just need to be reviewed, so that in the event this happens, it's not a complete shock." "We are up against an autocratic tyrant who has absolutely no concern for collateral damage or civilian casualties. "I'm sure Putin wouldn't think twice about firing a missile, nuclear or conventional, at London cities and the UK's critical national infrastructure." Meanwhile, Colonel Kemp warned that Russia could attack Britain in several ways that could wreak havoc on nation - and our armed forces are simply not prepared enough to fight Putin's troops. He added: "We could be the target of large-scale ballistic missile, cruise missile, drone, cyber, chemical and even nuclear strikes as well as sabotage. "I would hope that what has recently been happening in Ukraine and the Middle East has galvanised our leaders so that we are prepared. But we have a huge amount of ground to make up." "The best way to avoid such things happening to us is deterring an attack. That means we need to substantially increase our own offensive as well as defensive capabilities." NOT GOOD ENOUGH The Cabinet Office ran a risk assessment in January in which it modelled a scenario in which a hostile foreign state launched various types of attack on the UK's infrastructure. It found that any such successful strike could be devastating. A senior RAF official said last month if Russia had attacked the UK in the same way as it had Ukraine more than three years ago - within hours missiles would have broken through defences and destroyed key targets. Military experts agree that Britain's air defence systems are not adequate to thwart a large-scale missile attack. Colonel Kemp said: "One of our major weaknesses is air defence, both for our forces and homeland defence. "Putin has significant long-range missile and attack drone capability, which could be used against us. "The other day, a Houthi ballistic missile from Yemen penetrated Israel's air defences and struck their international airport. "Israel has the most comprehensive and advanced air and missile defence systems in the world. "That shows how vulnerable any country can be to attack, and we have nothing even approaching Israel's capabilities." Bretton-Gordon added: " I expect, as part of the Strategic Defence Review, a lot of focus will be on air defence. "But it's not just missiles and fighter jets, the Ukraine war shows how effective drone warfare could be."
