Wargame Day: Is the UK ready for a real Russian attack?

This Is Why

Sky News

News, Daily News, News Commentary

4.0 • 552 Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's the morning of Monday 6 October 2025 and Russia has launched a missile strike against the UK. That was the scenario of The Wargame - a gripping five-part Sky News podcast that brought together former government ministers, military chiefs, and top defence experts to explore how the UK might respond to a modern-day crisis.

On the real 6 October, we speak to some of the makers of the series to get a sense of whether our leaders are taking the threat of Russia seriously enough. Would the United States come to the UK's aid if bombings began on British soil? And what do we need to do to improve our defence capabilities?

Niall Paterson is joined by The Wargame's co-creators - Sky’s security and defence editor Deborah Haynes, and Rob Johnson, head of Oxford University's Changing Character of War Centre - as well as Keir Giles, a leading expert on the Russian military who portrays the Russian president in the simulation.

You can listen to The Wargame here:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4lHtW6x1D6R0E1QmGLkBK1

Producers: Tom Gillespie & Emily Hulme
Editor: Mike Bovill

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before history was written, his name was carved in stone.
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1:06.8	Coming up, the day Russian missiles came to London. We revisit our sister podcast The Wargame,
1:13.5	which imagined a conflict between the UK and Vladimir Putin. October the 6th was the day he struck Oxford Circus.
1:17.1	So, in real life, just how close to war are we?
1:22.1	Before history was written, his name was carved in stone.
1:26.5	Now witness the legacy of Ramesses the Great.
1:34.3	180 priceless treasures direct from the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, in the UK for the first and only time.
1:36.2	Ramesses and the Pharaoh's Gold, the exhibition at Battersea Power Station.
1:42.1	Book now at Ramessesthexhibition.com.uk.
1:47.7	Stop paying to invest. With free trade, you can invest without the legacy fees,
	...

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