Russia could attack a Nato country within the next five years, according to Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, the Nato chief said that Europe needs to prepare for war with Russia on a scale not seen since World War Two.
He said “Russia has brought war back to Europe, and we must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents and great-grandparents endured.”
BBC reports: Rutte’s warning comes as US President Donald Trump tries to bring an end to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022.
Earlier this month, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said his country was not planning to go to war with Europe, but it was ready “right now” if Europe wanted to – or started a war.
But similar reassurances were given by Moscow in 2022, just before 200,000 Russian troops crossed the border and invaded Ukraine.
Putin has accused European countries of hindering US efforts to bring peace in Ukraine – a reference to the role Ukraine’s European allies have recently played in trying to change a US peace plan to end the war, whose initial draft was seen as favouring Russia.
But Putin was not sincere, Nato’s secretary-general said in the German capital, Berlin.
Supporting Ukraine, he added, was a guarantee for European security.
“Just imagine if Putin got his way; Ukraine under the boot of Russian occupation, his forces pressing against a longer border with Nato, and the significantly increased risk of an armed attack against us.”
Russia’s economy has been on a war footing for more than three years now – its factories churn out ever more supplies of drones, missiles and artillery shells.
According to a recent report by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Russia has been producing each month around 150 tanks, 550 infantry fighting vehicles, 120 Lancet drones and more than 50 artillery pieces.
The UK, and most of its Western allies, are simply not anywhere near this point.
Analysts say it would take years for Western Europe’s factories to come close to matching Russia’s mass-production of weapons.
France and Germany have both recently moved to revive a system of voluntary military service for 18-year-olds.