To wonder if anyone has or is considering moving to a country that's less likely to be involved if Putin attacks a NATO country. (title edited by MNHQ at request of OP)

[Carla786]

I hope that if WW3 happened, I'd be brave enough to stay and fight. I love Britain & I'd hate to leave it or see it invaded by Putin.

However, at the same time I'm wondering about the recent rush of articles suggesting conflict with Russia is inevitable by around 2030 and that civilians need to prepare to be conscripted to fight if NATO is attacked. I'd always thought Britain being land-invaded was fairly unlikely, but being called up to fight in a NATO war widens the options of what might happen.

Countries that are less likely to be involved include Austria, Switzerland, New Zealand, Republic of Ireland. I don't particularly want to move to any of these. If call-ups are likely to be imminent in about 4 years, I don't know..

The country I've always thought I'd move to if I did move is Poland (where I have family ties)- but of course that's far more likely to be involved in a potential war!

I’d be more concerned at the prospect of China invading Taiwan, but nobody seems to be paying attention to them gearing up for that.

Unless the conflict goes nuclear (which I don't think anybody is stupid enough to initiate) there's no way on earth Putin is invading us. He's struggling with the country right nextdoor to him which has less military capability than the UK alone.

DH and I have talked about planning for an escalation in hostile attacks. Cyber attacks are very likely. So how for instance could we manage without gas and or electricity for long periods. Could we isolate our solar panels from the national grid to give us some power. Should we actually replace our electric car with petrol. Growing more of my own food. Etc etc.
Trump currently scares me more than Putin. I cannot imagine him leaving power after his term is up. And he can do so much damage, seemingly unchecked, in the 4 years he has left. The biggest power in the world is destabilising
Add to that climate change and i do think we are in an extinction event.
Having young adult DC makes the poss of a land war v scary.

I’d love to leave UK for eg Canada or Kiwi but am too old now (59) and not for fear of war but fed up with the politics since Brexit and tanking economy, narrower options for my teenage DC etc.

If there’s a world war it will effect everyone to some extent - clue’s in the name.

You’ve been indoctrinated. You sound like those hideous women from WW1 handing out white feathers. Did you serve in the military, out of interest?

@Theroadt i mean if the feared conflict is between USA and Europe over Greenland - moving to Canada is very much a frying pan in to the fire decision.

Imagine coming on scaremongering and your source of information comes from the DM 😆😆😆 that's totally made my weekend, brilliant!

I think a fair amount of it also came from ChatGPT.

Russia might be stupid enough to do it but the wouldn’t stand a chance in hell unless they used their nuclear weapons. Their population is vast compared to ours but not when you compare to all of NATO. Their military budget is minuscule compared to USA. Their only hope would be if they teamed up with China but why would China want to when they prosper so much from the western world buying their crap?

India? Just narrowly escaped nuclear war last May.
China? Likely to start the next war.
USA. Internal ICE war!

OP, what skills do you have?

🤣🤣🤣🤣

I live in the ROI and I don't take our neutrality for granted. Tyrants tend not to respect neutrality when it comes to land grabs. The only reason our neutrality remained intact during WWII is because Hitler's plan to invade the UK failed. And our proximity to England meant that the Germans dropped bombs along the east coat of Ireland, most notably the North Strand bombing. How the 1941 North Strand bombings wiped out an entire family I suggest you consider the proximity of Ireland to England before you make a move across the Irish sea. And you might also want to note that the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland occupy the same small island.

Nato are currently moving troops into Greeenland to defend it against the USA. Goes to show you can never predict where conflict might spring up.
Also Iceland (which OP mentiobs as another potential "refuge") was a founding NATO member so would definitely be involved in any conflict with Russia or the US!

I agree with you and have been following developments (not closely it is too terrifying).
Conscription will happen. military resources have been under funded and stripped for the last 20 years. We do not have enough troops or equipment.
I am mother to 3 young men, one is planning to join up anyway, one is medically exempt and the other works in essential homefront services.
But I can see a time where potentially they are all called up or choose to fight.
Look at Ukraine they they had to boost their armed forces recruit troops. We aren't so different a society to them.

babyproblems, you are correct, I had a friend who was a solicitor, she was emigrating to NZ with her DH, then they said they didn't require solicitors at that time, she had to re apply and wait several years. A cousin emigrated to Australia, ironically because she thought there would be a war here. It was extremely complicated..I also have relatives who emigrated to Canada.. I do feed the birds, I've never seen a squirrel in our garden, although we're in a village,fields and farms just 2 roads away.. yesterday we saw the sparrows waiting, the food didn't last long!

The most worrying thing is trumps disregard for NATO. that is a more worrying catalyst to conflict than Russia.

More threat of Trump invading than Putin. I doubt anywhere would be truly ‘safe’ in the event of ww3

Probably Finland.

Enchanting.

Nah, I think trump will take out Putin long before any war breaks out. Putin isn't playing by Trumps rules, and trump don't like that

I do think being interested in birds or nature or long walks is crucial to staying sane in 2025.

More likely to be in a war with USA if the orange tw*t invades Greenland & therefore NATO…

My DH is a veteran. He served 20 years as a paratrooper. Hundreds of comments on social media from his brothers across the paras and the marines have all said no way would they fight for this country when so many of them have been treated so badly (abandoned with PTSD and left homeless) and with the state the country is in, when we’ve been overrun by people who do not believe in our way of life. Why should they prop up a country when they’ve already done that in Iraq and Afghanistan (twice) and they’ve been let down, cast aside and forgotten? These highly trained ex fighters are men in their 30, 40s and 50s who are the fittest, healthiest, strongest and patriotic minded men you’d ever meet.
These exceptionally fit, strong, airborne hero’s now in their second careers are runners, powerlifters, boxers, firemen, paramedics, police officers, councillors and fitness experts. They can handle guns, they can jump out of planes, they can drive all manner of vehicles, they are survival experts, even more skilled than they were as soldiers.
They won’t do it, they’ll take their families where they know they can look after them (plenty of places in the UK wilderness) so the rest of the country are on their own. Most of the UK won’t want to fight and won’t know how anyway.

Why would you expect that? Australia joined the UK, Ukraine and loads of other arseholes in arselickingly joining the USA in the invasion of Iraq.

New Zealand did not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_of_the_willing_(Iraq_War)

Agree. I can’t see it being totally beyond the realms of possibility now for him to wake up one day and think ‘I need a great island, a great place nearer to Europe and Russia to maintain security. It’s a great place and I’m great so I need it.’