MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: A frustrated Putin is a dangerous enemy. It's time Labour got a grip

See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Published: 19:14 EDT, 29 August 2026 | Updated: 19:16 EDT, 29 August 2026 What are we to make of the Burnham government's position on national defence, and on the undeclared conflict with Russia?The PM has made his obligatory visit to Ukraine and offered President Zelensky very specific help with missiles which can be used to target Russian territory.Moscow has responded by saying that its reply – to Ukrainian strikes using British weapons on Russian territory – could be against 'any British military facilities and equipment in Ukraine and beyond'.This is pretty serious. What then has become of the pledge made by Chancellor John Healey when he was Defence Secretary – that he was personally committed to an increase in Britain's defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP? Why, he even quit Sir Keir Starmer's government for that reason. Yet now here he is, back in government but with a bigger and grander Red Box, shelving his own promise.Of course, high spending by itself is no guarantee of safety. A worrying amount of our military spending goes adrift on wasteful dud projects.The replacement of our Trident missile submarines is very costly.But a retreat from this rather modest 3 per cent target does not really fit well with Britain's current posture as a major player in the fight against Russia in Ukraine. Earlier this week, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed Prime Minister Andy Burnham in Kyiv Andrei Fedorov, a former deputy foreign minister of Russia who now advises Putin, describes the UK as 'evil number one' on the Kremlin's listIf we want to be in such a fight – and most of us believe we should – then we must prepare to win it, with skill, thought and top-class kit.There is a major risk. Russia's President Putin is increasingly isolated from criticism and real news.He is ageing, lonely and frustrated by the failure of his aggression. History shows that, the longer this goes on, the more erratic he is likely to be. But how well are we prepared against any backlash? Where are our missile defences, for example?That is not all. As the Mail on Sunday reports today, this country is already facing subtle, hard-to-foresee attacks in a 'nuisance war' which could be directed against rocket factories here, or against arms companies and their executives. Andrei Fedorov, a former deputy foreign minister of Russia who now advises Putin, describes the UK as 'evil number one' on the Kremlin's list, warning that we 'must be punished'. Philip Ingram, a former intelligence officer, writing on our pages, gives us deeper reasons to be worried. He points out that Putin is in fact weaker and more vulnerable than he cares to admit. But there is much he can do to try to hurt or scare us, which would not risk a devastating Nato reaction.Whether the intensifying war is hybrid or hypersonic, we simply must prepare ourselves to wage it and to defend ourselves from whatever comes.Mr Healey is in danger of making a fool of himself by trying to back out of what he said at the MoD, now he is at the Treasury. He and the Prime Minister can redeem themselves by restoring the 3 per cent target and by commissioning a deep, searching and urgent review of our capacities to fight a hybrid war and to keep our skies safe, at the very least.Government does not have any more important task.