The force spokesman said that Britain must be ready to defend NATO territory if necessary to prevent any further military action by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia beyond the borders of Ukraine.
This is the 1937 moment, the military leader, Gen. Patrick Sanders, said, referring to Western Europe's failure to confront Nazi Germany's territorial expansion in the years preceding World War II. He said that we are not at war, but we must act quickly so that we aren't drawn into one through a failure to contain territorial expansion.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain prepares to meet Western leaders at a NATO summit in Madrid, where they will discuss the alliance's biggest overhaul since the end of the Cold War, according to the British army chief's comments, his first speech since taking up his post.