The new Cold War

• Putin unveiled ambitious military modernization program with new combat jets, missiles and other weapons

• General Sir Adrian Bradshaw said Vladimir Putin could use 'hybrid-warfare 'to seize former Baltic states

• He backed plans to set up Nato force integration units in eastern Europe to 'send a strong signal' to the Kremlin

• Comments echo those by Defence Secretary who claimed Russian aggression poses as great a threat as Isis

• Ukraine secret services accuse political aide to Vladimir Putin of directing the snipers in Kiev prior to the revolution

• RAF jets this week scrambled to intercept two Russian bombers capable of carrying nuclear missiles off Cornwall

• Tupolev Tu95 Bear aircraft streaked along fringes of UK airspace, prompting the deployment of two Typhoons

• Russian TV later screens footage of mid-air contact thought to have been filmed on previous interception

• Country 'could not cope' if Russia attacked because our defences have been 'decimated', say military chiefs

• David Cameron defiantly dismissed the incident, saying the Russians 'are trying to make some sort of a point'

• But former air chiefs say number of British fighter squadrons has fallen from 26 at Cold War end to just seven

Military chiefs have warned that Britain has entered a new Cold War with Russia, as Vladimir Putin threatened anyone who tried to pressure his country.

Amid growing tensions over Ukraine, Putin said ‘no one should have any illusions that it’s possible to achieve military superiority over Russia or apply any kind of pressure on it’.

Adding that his forces would always have an ‘adequate response’, he vowed to step up an ambitious military modernisation, with hundreds of new combat jets, missiles and other weapons.

His comments sparked renewed concern about the UK’s capability to cope in the event of a conflict with Russia.

Britain’s top military commander in Nato spoke of an ‘era of constant competition with Russia’, while a former RAF chief said the UK was in ‘a different sort of Cold War.’

This week, RAF fighter jets were scrambled to intercept two Russian bombers capable of carrying nuclear missiles off the Cornwall coast. Russian military planes, ships and submarines have made at least 17 incursions close to the UK since the start of 2014 as Moscow tests Western response times.

General Sir Adrian Bradshaw, Nato’s deputy supreme allied commander in Europe, said tensions with Russia could become an all-out conflict. Putin could invade and seize Nato territory and change Europe’s borders, he added in a speech at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

The general said: ‘The threat from Russia and the risk it brings of miscalculation resulting in a strategic conflict, represents an existential threat to our whole being.’

He claimed Russia may use traditional Soviet tactics of ‘escalation dominance’ or hybrid warfare.

Putin could generate large-scale conventional forces at ‘very short notice’, after calculating the alliance would be too afraid of escalating violence to respond, he said.

Former RAF chief Sir Michael Graydon said there was ‘no doubt’ Europe and the Kremlin were engaged in conflict, with tensions similar to those seen in the 1980s – when the Russians would probe British air defences to work out how quickly they could respond.

‘Today it is to check our air defences and they have probably worked out we are not as sharp as we were, and it is also them saying here we are … a powerful nation,’ Sir Michael said.

He added: ‘It is a different sort of Cold War. Putin is focusing on weaknesses in the EU.

‘He feels Nato has pushed Russia in Europe and made him feel vulnerable and is seeing what he can get away with. If he sees weaknesses he will exploit it.

'There is no doubt there is a competition and conflict on. He wants to establish Russia as another great power.’

Referring to crisis in Ukraine, the Prime Minister said the West would be ‘staunch’ in response and was prepared to pressure Moscow ‘for the long term’.

Speaking on a visit to Govan shipyard in Glasgow, the Prime Minister said: 'I don't accept this. The responsibility for what has happened in Ukraine lies absolutely squarely with Vladimir Putin and Russia.

'They destabilised and effectively invaded this country and have caused all the problems that have happened since.

'What Britain and countries of the European Union have done is merely to say that Ukraine should be able to choose its own future.'

He said Britain had led the way in terms of calling for Russia to be thrown out of the G8 and pushed for strong sanctions and vowed not to back down.

'In terms of what Britain has done, we were the first country to say that Russia should be thrown out of the G8, and Russia was thrown out of the G8. We have been the strongest adherent that we need strong sanctions in Europe and we've pushed for those, achieved those and held onto those at every single occasion.

'What we need to do now is to deliver the strongest possible message to Putin and to Russia that what has happened is unacceptable, that the ceasefires need to hold and if they don't there will be more consequences, more sanctions, more measures.

'The truth here is that we have to be clear that we're prepared to do this for the long term and that Russia should not make the mistake of thinking in any way that America, Britain, France or Germany will be divided or will be weak. We won't. We'll be staunch, we'll be strong, we'll be resolute and in the end, we'll prevail.'

Nato has agreed to set up a rapid reaction force of about 5,000 soldiers ready to move within 48 hours in case of Russian aggression in Eastern Europe.

Sir Adrian said this would show Russia that an attack on any Nato member would ‘lead them to a conflict with the whole alliance’.

He said Nato units, to be built in each Eastern state, could be required to ‘support our eastern members’. He also revealed a ‘refreshed system of warnings’ to identify threats such as cyber-attacks, subversion and hostile propaganda.

Nato leaders fear disguised, irregular military action by Russia, carefully calculated to avoid triggering the alliance’s mutual defence pact.

The increasingly fragile ceasefire appeared close to breaking point amid claims by the U.S. that pro-Russian rebels had fired on Kiev forces 49 times in the last 48 hours and more than 250 times since the start of the truce on Sunday.

If a lasting peace-deal is struck it will most likely see pro-Russian separatists, which many believe effectively means Moscow, holding on to the territory they have gained.

The General added: 'The danger that Russia might believe that the large scale conventional forces which she has shown she can generate at very short notice as we saw in the snap exercise that preceded the take-over of Crimea could in future be used not only for intimidation and coercion but potentially to seize Nato territory.

'After which the threat of escalation might be used to prevent re-establishment of territorial integrity. This use of so-called escalation dominance was of course a classic Soviet technique.'

The General's comments echo those made by Defence Secretary Michael Fallon who said that Russian aggression poses 'as great a threat to Europe as the Islamic State'.

Mr Fallon warned of the threat to Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia and claimed Vladimir Putin was continuing to 'test us' by deploying submarines and warplanes near British territory.

'The Russian defence spending is clearly worrying. Russia is modernising their conventional forces, they are modernising their nuclear forces and they are testing Nato so we need to respond.

'Mr Putin is as great a threat to Europe as the Islamic State', he said, adding: 'We' ve got to be ready for both. They are both very direct threats to Europe.'

Mr Fallon said he was worried that Russia could use the same subversive techniques which they used to annex Crimea in the Baltic States, including Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

He said: 'If you look at the number of flights, maritime activity… he flew two Russian bombers down the English Channel two weeks ago suddenly on a Wednesday morning. We had to scramble the jets very quickly to see them off.'

The Kremlin-backed Russian news channel RT reported that Russia had begun deploying its next-generation 'Nebo-M' anti-missile radar system to counter the threat from NATO anti-ballistic missile systems in Eastern Europe.

This week RAF fighters intercepted two Russian bombers skirting British airspace off the coast of Cornwall, where they were intercepted and escorted by the two RAF Typhoon fighters.

Footage shown on Russian TV of a similar incident last year shows armed RAF and Nato jets flying in close formation with the plane and provides clear views of the bomber's turboprop engines. One RAF Typhoon flies so close that the pilot can clearly be seen through the cockpit glass.

The footage emerged as former military top brass warned Britain cannot defend itself against the military threat posed by Russia.

Military chiefs said the UK 'could not cope' if Russia attacked because our defences had been 'decimated'.

The Russian leader listens to Lyudmila Narusova, the widow of former St. Petersburg mayor Anatoly Sobchak, as they take part in a flower laying ceremony at the monument to Sobchak in St. Petersburg, yesterday

In a sign of the growing provocation from Russian president Vladimir Putin, the Tupolev Tu95 Bear aircraft streaked along the fringes of UK airspace, prompting the deployment of two state-of-the-art Typhoons.

David Cameron defiantly dismissed the incident, saying the Russians 'are trying to make some sort of a point, and I don't think we should dignify it with too much of a response'.

He added: 'I think what this episode demonstrates is that we do have the fast jets, the pilots, the systems in place to protect the UK.'

But former air chiefs rubbished the Prime Minister's claims, saying the number of British fighter squadrons had plunged from 26 at the end of the Cold War to just seven following heavy RAF cuts by successive governments.

Sir Michael Graydon, former head of the RAF, said: 'I very much doubt whether the UK could sustain a shooting war against Russia. We are at half the capabilities we had previously.'

Russian military planes, ships and submarines have made at least 17 incursions close to the UK since the start of last year as the increasingly truculent regime in Moscow tests Western response times.

Sir Michael added: 'They fly in these regions to check our air defences and have probably worked out we are not as sharp as we were.

'They know it is provocative and they are doing it at a time when defence in the west is pretty wet compared to where they are.'

First flown - 1952

Length - 46metres

Wingspan - 50metres

Crew - 6-7

Loaded weight - 170,000kg

Max speed - 575mph

Range - 9,000miles

Armoury - Up to 15,000kg of missiles and bombs

Estimated cost - £20million

Number built - More than 500

Eurofighter Typhoon

First flown - 1994

Length - 15metres

Wingspan - 11metres

Crew - 1

Loaded weight - 16,000kg

Max Speed - 1,320mph

Range - 2,900miles

Armoury - Revolving cannon, 8 air-to-air missiles, laser-guided bombs

Estimated cost - £125million

Number built - 427 so far

Since 2010, the Coalition has axed 30,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen as well as hundreds of warships, fighter jets, spy planes and tanks in a bid to cut the Ministry of Defence's budget by £4.7 billion and plug a £40 billion hole in equipment spending.

Meanwhile, the Russian defence budget has grown by 33 per cent to £54billion over the past year, compared with Britain’s £36.4billion. The UK has 154,227 troops. Russia has 771,000 troops, three times more nuclear-powered submarines and 12 times the number of tanks.

Air Commodore Andrew Lambert, who commanded Allied forces in northern Iraq in 1999, said: 'If the Russians turned up the heat, we would struggle badly.

'If Putin wanted to attack, he would not send a pair of bombers, he would send the lot and saturate our defences; we couldn't cope.

'The Typhoon is a really good aircraft but with their relatively small numbers they would be overwhelmed: the Russians would outflank us, go around us or just go through us.'

He added: 'The modern generation of politicians has grown up in absolute security – they've never felt a threat to their existence, safety or security.

'They've taken peace for granted and decimated the Armed Forces. Let's hope we don't pay the price.'

The latest incident came as Defence Secretary Michael Fallon warned that Putin posed a 'real and present danger' to three former Soviet satellites in the Baltics – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Vladimir Komoyedov, chairman of the Russian parliament's defence committee, accused Mr Fallon, 62, of 'stupidity'.

He added: 'I feel that he is a bit too old, not only in terms of his age but also in his ideas.'