The West must not be cowed by Vladimir Putin, the head of Britain’s Armed Forces has warned ahead of Donald Trump’s high-stakes meeting with the Russian president.

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said Nato allies must be “assertive in every domain – nuclear, land, sea, air, cyber and space – as well as in the diplomatic and economic arenas” as he cautioned against submitting to Moscow’s demands for peace .

The rare intervention by Britain’s most senior military officer comes ahead of Mr Trump’s one-to-one meeting with Putin in Alaska on Friday, which is expected to forge the conditions for peace in Ukraine.

On Thursday night, Mr Trump said that Putin would not “mess around with me” and threatened to impose further sanctions if he failed to offer a meaningful resolution to the war.

He sa

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