BBC:
Russia could attack a Nato country within the next five years, the Western military alliance’s chief has said in a stark new warning.
“Russia is already escalating its covert campaign against our societies,” Mark Rutte said in a speech in Germany. “We must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured.”
He echoed similar statements about Russia’s intentions made by Western intelligence agencies, which Moscow dismisses as hysteria.
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.”
