NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte says he does not expect Russia to attack the alliance in the coming years, arguing that its strength makes such a move unlikely.
Speaking to the BBC during an official visit to London on Thursday, Rutte said the lessons of the war in Ukraine meant that NATO should not be “naive” about what Russian President Vladimir Putin is capable of.
At the same time, he said he did not believe Russia would attack NATO in the next few years because the alliance is currently too strong for Putin to risk such a move, the Hungarian News Agency (MTI) wrote.
Rutte calls for NATO to maintain its strength
Rutte stressed that NATO must ensure it remains equally strong over the next “two, three, five years”. His comments come as European countries continue to increase defence spending and strengthen their military capabilities amid Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also highlighted the need for stronger European defence in her State of the Union address on Wednesday, saying the war in Ukraine had demonstrated the importance of capabilities including air and missile defence.
She said Europe needed to reduce its dependence on a single supplier and announced plans to develop an affordable, modular missile-defence system together with Ukraine. The proposed Freyja project would combine Ukrainian battlefield experience with European technology and production capacity.
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EU continues military support for Ukraine
The EU is also continuing to provide military assistance to Ukraine. According to the sources, von der Leyen announced a further EUR 3.3 billion in support for Ukrainian purchases of missiles and drones.
The EU has already approved substantial additional defence funding this month. On 11 September, the European Commission approved EUR 6.1 billion for Ukrainian purchases of air and missile defence systems, missiles, ammunition, drones and electronic warfare equipment. The package also enables Ukraine to acquire Patriot equipment and PAC-3 missiles.
The Commission has said the remaining funds from the EU’s SAFE programme will also be used for joint defence projects with Ukrainian companies, with the Freyja missile-defence project at the centre of the planned cooperation.
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Both comments care a product of sheer fantasy.
Both comments ARE a product of sheer fantasy.
“You know who” is typing from Russia after some vodka. Enjoy the vodka.
This article is quite misleading about the threat Russia poses and invites complacency. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has issued blunt warnings that Russia has “set its sights on NATO” and that member countries face an elevated, direct risk of an armed attack if Moscow succeeds in Ukraine. Rutte firmly rejected past diplomatic promises or reassurances from Moscow, drawing parallels to the false commitments Russia made just before its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He warned that supporting Kyiv is absolutely critical to European security because a Russian victory would leave NATO facing a longer shared border and a significantly higher risk of an armed attack. He highlighted that Russia’s transformed wartime economy—which is actively mass-producing tanks, drones, and artillery shells—poses a long-term threat that Western nations must rapidly counter by scaling up their own defense spending and industrial production
I will never forget this statement I read from Georgiy Mamedov the Russian ambassador to Canada just before Russian troops entered Ukraine in Feb 2022: “I can give you my personal assurances (totally worthless): Our troops won’t cross the Ukrainian border.” We are dealing with gangsters. These are the same people who signed the Budapest Memorandum guaranteeing Ukraine’s borders in return from giving up the nuclear arsenal Ukraine inherited from the break-up of the Soviet Union. Putin has built a war economy pumping out munitions at a rate which is a multiple of anything NATO is producing. He is the person who has the guile to take a risk if he senses an opportunity and is presently stockpiling munitions on the side which are not for use in Ukraine. Rob Bauer former NATO Military Committe Chair: “The Russian war economy is actually working very hard and successful, and is producing more weapons and ammunition, and drones and everything, than they need in the war in Ukraine.” NATO has the capacity to fend off a Russian attack but only for a limited period of perhaps a few weeks and then it runs out of munitions. Your only defence after that point is nuclear weapons and who wants to use those?
https://balticsentinel.eu/8545099/former-nato-military-committee-chair-admiral-rob-bauer-war-with-russia-is-now-more-likely-than-no-war
You can tell when Mark Rutte is lying. His lips move.
Larry, shut your trap for a second, will you?
Oh another Russian bot here
Second version Mouton
😂😂😂
scumbag idiot