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Britain is secretly preparing for a direct military attack on Russia amid fears that the country is not ready for war.
Officials have been asked to update 20-year-old contingency plans that would put the UK on a war footing after threats of attack by the Kremlin.
A classified dossier will set out how the Government would respond to a declaration of war, including bunkers to protect the Cabinet and the Royal family, public service broadcasts and the stockpiling of resources.
Ministers fear Britain would not only be outgunned by Russia and its allies on the battlefield but would also be unprepared and poorly defended at home.
Kremlin officials have repeatedly threatened the UK with a direct attack over its support for Ukraine, which may soon include British troops on the ground.
Experts have warned that the UK is vulnerable to an assault on its critical national infrastructure, including gas terminals, undersea cables, nuclear power plants and transport hubs.
The Telegraph understands that an update to the classified “homeland defence plan” will set out a strategy for the days immediately after a strike on the UK mainland by a hostile foreign state.
It will include scenarios in which Britain is hit by conventional missiles, nuclear warheads or cyber operations, which were a limited threat when the last significant update to the plan was made before 2005.
The plan, by the Cabinet Office’s Resilience Directorate, will direct the Prime Minister and Cabinet on how to run a wartime government, and when they should seek shelter in the Downing Street bunker or outside London.
The war strategies for the rail and road networks, courts, postal system and phone lines are all expected to be examined. It is unlikely the document will be released to the public for decades, if at all.
The Government has also modelled the likelihood and effects of a nuclear missile attack on the UK, but the official conclusions of that review remain classified.