"What should we be doing differently? First of all, I think that we should recognize that Russia respects strength and people who stand up to them. The original plan for Ukraine had been to acquire significantly more terrain. However, Russia was surprised by Ukrainian resistance and had to settle for less. We should identify Russian weaknesses and then maneuver asymmetrically against them," Carter said in a lecture, available on the think tank's YouTube channel.
The UK chief of the General Staff suggested building institutions in neighboring countries that would be able to help these states withstand outside pressure and reducing the dependency of the Western countries on Russia's energy.
"We should be telling the Russian population what is really going on," Carter claimed.
The UK military chief stressed the importance of protecting the cyberspace, finding out the United Kingdom's vulnerabilities to "Russian malign influence and disinformation."
Moscow has repeatedly pointed out that it is not a party to the internal conflict in Ukraine, where two regions in the east of the country proclaimed independence after a new government came to power in Kiev in 2014. Following the establishment of the new government, Crimea rejoined Russia via a referendum, where over 90 percent of the peninsula's residents voted for the region to become part of Russia.
The referendum has not been recognized by Kiev and Western countries, which consider Crimea part of Ukraine. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin has stressed that the issue has been closed once and for all.
At the lecture, the chief of the UK General Staff also claimed that Russia is capable of starting hostile actions earlier than expected, surprising its potential opponents with something that had not been seen before.
