。 British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace wants a major hike in armed forces spending in response to the conflict in Ukraine.,The BBC reported that Wallace will call on Chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak to raise defense spending from around two per cent of GDP — the NATO target figure — to 2.5 percent.,The minister is expected to make comments to that effect when he addresses the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) Land Warfare Conference in Westminster later on Tuesday, before flying to Madrid for the NATO summit there.,"The defense secretary is expected to emphasize that now that the threat has changed, governments must be prepared to invest to keep us safe," said a defense source quoted by Sky News.,"We do not comment on alleged leaks," another defense source insisted, adding: "The defense secretary and the prime minister have always said that the government will respond to any changes in threat, which is why in 2020 the Ministry of Defence received a record defense settlement.",Britain has sent a battalion-sized force of soldiers to Estonia in a bid to confront Russia, while supplying Ukraine with thousands of man-portable anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, over 120 armored vehicles and three M270 multiple-launch rocket artillery systems.,Wallace claimed earlier in June that Western military aid was helping the Ukrainian military make "significant progress" in the east of the country against Russian and Donbass forces. But recent days saw the capture of the city of Severodonetsk and a string of smaller settlements in Lugansk, with up to 8,000 Ukrainian troops now trapped in Lisichansk.,British Chief of General Staff General Sir Patrick Sanders told the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) conference on Tuesday morning that the crisis in Ukraine was "our 1937 moment" — a possible reference to then-prime minister Neville Chamberlain's simultaneous policy of appeasing towards Nazi Germany while re-arming Britain.,Sanders said his focus was on "mobilizing the army to meet the new threat we face", insisting: "The British Army is not mobilizing to provoke war, it is mobilizing to prevent war.",NATO Could Expand Eastern European Battlegroups to Brigade or Division-Size Forces: Report26 June, 15:49 GMT,The general called the scale of the conflict in Ukraine "unprecedented.","In all my years in uniform I haven't known such a clear threat to the principals of sovereignty and democracy and the freedom to live without fear of violence as the brutal aggression of President Putin and his expansionist ambitions," Sanders said.,"This is our 1937 moment," he added. "We are not at war but must act rapidly so that we aren't drawn into one through a failure to contain territorial expansion… I will do everything in my power to ensure that the British Army plays its part in averting war."。
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