NATO chief Mark Rutte has warned that war with Russia ‘is at our door’ as he urged European allies to prepare for action now or risk facing a conflict on the scale ‘our grandparents and great-grandparents endured’.
Speaking in Berlin on Thursday, Rutte said too many NATO members remained ‘quietly complacent’ about the threat posed by Moscow and insisted Europe must urgently ramp up defence spending and weapons production to deter Vladimir Putin.
‘We are Russia’s next target,’ he said. ‘I fear that too many are quietly complacent. Too many don’t feel the urgency.
‘And too many believe that time is on our side. It is not. The time for action is now.’
‘Conflict is at our door. Russia has brought war back to Europe. And we must be prepared,’ he added.
Rutte warned Russia could be ready to use military force against NATO within five years and said that without immediate investment, Europe could find itself fighting a war reminiscent of the 20th-century catastrophes that devastated the continent.
His warning came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was holding urgent talks with leaders and officials from about 30 countries that are supporting Kyiv’s effort to obtain fair terms for an end to the war with Russia.
The leaders of Germany, Britain and France were among those expected to take part in the meeting of Ukraine’s allies, dubbed the coalition of the willing, via video link.
Zelensky indicated the talks were hastily arranged as Kyiv officials scramble to avoid getting boxed in by Donald Trump’s demands for a swift settlement.
European governments are trying to help steer the peace negotiations because they say their own security is at stake.
The US president said on Wednesday that he and European leaders had discussed proposals by phone in ‘pretty strong terms’, adding that Zelensky ‘has to be realistic’ about his country’s position on a peace plan that would cede Ukrainian territory to Russia. He did not elaborate.
Trump’s latest effort to broker a settlement is taking longer than he wanted.
He initially set a hard deadline for Kyiv to accept his peace plan before Thanksgiving at the end of November. Previous Washington deadlines for reaching a peace deal have also passed without making a breakthrough.
Russia is also keen to show Trump it is engaging with his peace efforts, hoping to avoid any further US sanctions.
Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday that Russia has relayed to Washington ‘additional proposals … concerning collective security guarantees’ that Ukraine and Europe say are needed to deter future aggression.
‘We understand that when discussing security guarantees, we cannot limit ourselves to Ukraine alone,’ Lavrov said. He did not offer details of the Kremlin’s proposals.
Meanwhile, Ukraine launched one of its biggest drone attacks of the nearly four-year war overnight, forcing flights in and out of all four Moscow airports to be halted for seven hours.
Airports in eight other cities across Russia also faced restrictions, Russian civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia said on Thursday.
The Russian defence ministry said air defences intercepted 287 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions.
The display of Ukraine’s military capability to strike deep inside Russia appeared as a counter to the Kremlin’s argument that its invasion is overwhelming for its smaller neighbour.
Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to portray himself as negotiating from a position of strength, analysts say. But since launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russia has captured only about 20 percent of Ukraine.
There are signs that the negotiations are coming to a crossroads. The talks are at ‘a critical moment’, European leaders said in a statement on Wednesday.
Next week, Ukraine will co-ordinate with European countries on a bilateral level, Zelensky said late on Wednesday.
‘Ukraine is working swiftly,’ he said.
