The ex-chief of MI6 today declared that Britain must ‘face up to the fact’ that Russia believes it is fighting an ‘actual’ war with the West, rather than just Ukraine.

Sir Richard Dearlove, who led Britain’s secret intelligence service from 1999 to 2004, told Sky News: ‘I don’t think there’s any point in beating about the bush,’ adding that the US and Europe are in a ‘very dangerous situation’.

‘(Polish Prime Minister) Donald Tusk has referred to it as a pre-war situation. I think he’s wrong. I think it’s an actual war,’ he said.

He went on to justify his statement by referring to examples of Russian hybrid warfare on countries across Europe involving sabotage plots, cyber-attacks and ‘very aggressive moves’.

‘You’ve had the heads of the intelligence agencies – of the CIA, of my former service – actually standing up publicly and talking about the Russians going ”feral”.

‘We have got a major, contained, war on the continent… Things could go badly wrong very quickly.’

Sir Richard’s alarming comments follow comments by Ukraine’s former military chief who last week declared that World War Three is already underway given the support for Moscow’s armed forces from North Korea, Iran and China.

Valery Zaluzhny, who is now Ukraine’s envoy to the United Kingdom, told the UP100 award ceremony in Kyiv: ‘I believe that in 2024 we can absolutely believe that the Third World War has begun.’

The General said that as of this year, ‘Ukraine is no longer facing Russia. Soldiers from North Korea are standing in front of Ukraine.’

He made the comments after reports emerged that around 10,000 soldiers had been sent by Pyongyang to fight alongside Russian troops in the Kursk region, as Moscow aims to replenish its forces and reclaim the territory taken from it three months ago.

Zaluzhny went on to highlight the support Putin’s armies had received from Tehran, which has sent thousands of Shahed attack drones to Moscow and also assisted it with the technology to build the drones itself, according to reports.

More than 8,000 Iran-developed drones have been launched since the war began more than two-and-a-half years ago, Kyiv said in September, with many targeting civilian homes as well as military targets.

‘Let’s be honest. Already in Ukraine, the Iranian ‘Shahedis’ are killing civilians absolutely openly, without any shame,’ Zaluzhny said, adding that Chinese and North Korean weapons were also being used against his country.

It comes after Moscow’s ambassador to the UK declared that Britain is now ‘directly involved’ in the war after Kyiv’s Storm Shadow attack on Russian territory.

Asked if the UK is ‘at war’, the PM told BBC local radio: ‘We’re not at war, but Ukraine certainly is.’ Sir Keir slammed Putin’s ‘irresponsible rhetoric’.

‘Russia is the aggressor,’ he said. ‘This war could end today if Putin stopped being the aggressor.’

Meanwhile, a top military official declared the British Army would be ready to fight Vladimir Putin’s forces ‘tonight’ if Russia were to invade another European nation in addition to Ukraine.

Lt. Gen Sir Rob Magowan, the deputy chief of the British defence staff, told the House of Commons defence committee last week: ‘If the British Army was asked to fight tonight, it would fight tonight.

‘I don’t think anybody in this room should be under any illusion that if the Russians invaded Eastern Europe tonight, then we would meet them in that fight.’

However, Magowan’s declaration belies the state of the UK’s military capabilities.

In May, he acknowledged that Britain’s soldiers would run out of ammunition and equipment in a war against Putin’s Russia in less than two months.

As Russia continues to draw on support from its allies in terms of weaponry and manpower, Kyiv continues to press its western backers for military aid.

An attack on Kursk earlier this week is believed to be the first time Ukraine has used British Storm Shadows to strike into Russia, after the US set precedent with permission for use of ATACMS long-range missiles against Russian targets.

While the outlook of the war remains bleak, Zaluzhny urged Ukraine’s allies to redouble their support to decide its course.

‘It is still possible to stop it here, on the territory of Ukraine,’ he said. ‘But for some reason our partners do not want to understand this.

‘It is obvious that Ukraine already has too many enemies. Ukraine will survive with technology, but it is not clear whether it can win this battle alone,’ he said.

Zaluzhny was removed as the head of Ukraine’s armed forces in February after weeks of rumours that President Volodymyr Zelensky was planning a major shakeup of top military brass.

Known as the Iron General, Zaluzhny was credited with halting and pushing back Russia’s surprise invasion on February 24, 2022.

His popularity was dampened by the failure of last year’s counteroffensive, and he is said to have fallen out with Zelensky over differing opinions on how to boost numbers in the army, as it has struggled for months to fill its ranks.

Zelensky also reportedly took umbrage with an interview given by Zaluzhny to The Economist in which he admitted the fight had ground to a stalemate like World War I.

The Ukrainian President reportedly feared that such a statement could turn allies off the idea of sending more aid.

He is also said to have seen Zaluzhny as a potential political rival due to his enduring popularity among the armed forces and others.

The now-former commander-in-chief acknowledged Zelensky’s decision in a brief statement, saying: ‘The tasks of 2022 are different from those of 2024. Therefore, everyone must change and adapt to the new realities as well. In order to win together.’

Zaluzhny was replaced by the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces Oleksandr Syrsky, who is said to have a close relationship with Zelensky.

The former army chief’s warning comes after British and European leaders decried a ‘clear and deeply concerning escalation’ in conflict when Russian forces struck the city of Dnipro with an advanced hypersonic missile last week.

Ukraine’s air force initially reported Russia had deployed an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), with shocking footage showing how multiple warheads rained down over the plants of state-owned aerospace and defence manufacturer Yuzmash.

But Putin later on Thursday said Russia had launched an ‘Oreshnik’, one of its newest intermediate-range missiles.

He said it travelled at 10 times the speed of sound, rendering Ukrainian air defences powerless to shoot it down.

Russian sources said the range was 5,000km (3,100 miles), allowing Russia to strike most of Europe and the west coast of the United States.

The bombardment came a day after Kyiv launched UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles at targets in Kursk.

Fragments of the missiles that struck a military facility in the Russian town of Marino were recovered by military bloggers last Wednesday afternoon, with unverified pictures shared widely on social media.

The Mail understands the attacks, which followed Ukraine firing US-supplied ATACMS missiles, were personally approved by Sir Keir Starmer.

Russia officially acknowledged the strikes, saying its air defences shot down two of the projectiles along with six HIMARS rockets and 67 drones.

Russian military bloggers said 18 Russian and North Korean servicemen were killed in that attack with dozens more injured, though Russia’s defence ministry has not commented.

One of those killed was said to be a top North Korean general.

Western officials confirmed that a high-ranking military officer from North Korea had become a casualty of the war in Ukraine for the first time yesterday, after Kim Jong Un sent some 10,000 troops to reinforce Putin’s advancing lines in the region.

The officials did not name the officer or say how he was wounded. Col. Gen. Kim Yong Bok was recently deployed to Russia to coordinate troop movements with Putin’s forces, the WSJ reported.