Each of the 32 Nato member countries – including Britain – must prepare for a war on a scale ‘our grandparents and great-grandparents endured’.
Nato chief Mark Rutte today urged allies to step up their defence efforts to prevent a war waged by Russia.
In a speech in Berlin, he said too many allies do not feel the urgency of the threat in Europe and that they must rapidly increase defence spending and production to prevent a war on the scale of that seen by past generations.
‘We are Russia’s next target. I fear that too many are quietly complacent,’ he warned.
‘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.’
This comes just weeks after General Sir Richard Barrons warned that the UK needs to be ready for a long war – but that with the speed of production, ‘at best, we will be quite ready in about 10 years’.
Ever since the end of the Cold War,the government has not invested in the ‘things it needs for a long war,’ instead leaving them to ‘wither’.
The ex-commander of the Joint Forces warned that UK institutions are still operating on the complacent peacetime assumption that protracted wars do not happen anymore.
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