Speaking on the podcast of the Speaker of the House of Lords, he said that the level of Russian hostile activity puts Europe in a very dangerous position.

"It's unbelievable that we're now in this form of gray warfare. De facto, we're at war with Russia," West said, citing ongoing probes of undersea infrastructure, the emergence of Russian-linked drones and growing military pressure in the Arctic.

He stated that this pressure creates problems for the Scandinavian countries and reminded that Norway bought British frigates for this reason and increased cooperation, Defense Journal reports.

Vest said that the situation is"unstable and difficult to solve", because no one wants a direct war between NATO and Russia."Russia would lose in such a war, and the question is whether it would reach for nuclear weapons in a desperate moment."

He also referred to the war in Ukraine, saying that Putin"made a huge mistake" there and that he told Chinese President Xi Jinping that everything would last for three weeks."It didn't quite work out that way. It's a big strategic mistake," he said.

Lord West served in the Navy from 1965, was First Man of the Royal Navy from 2002 to 2006, and then Secretary of State for Security. The full conversation is available on the Speaker of the House of Lords podcast.