NATO WAR READINESS WARNINGS

17 December 2025

By: WPS News Desk

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BRUSSELS — NATO LEADERS SOUND WAR READINESS ALERT AS RUSSIA THREAT LOOMS

NATO’s top leadership is articulating an unvarnished message to the 32-nation alliance: the conditions for a potential large-scale armed conflict have returned to the European theater, and the alliance must prepare accordingly. During high-level addresses in Berlin this week, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte delivered one of the alliance’s starkest warnings in years, framing the current security environment as perilously unstable and demanding immediate action from reluctant allies.

“We are already in harm’s way,” Rutte declared, asserting bluntly that “Russia is the next target” and emphasizing that the time for complacency has passed. His comments were delivered in Berlin on December 11, 2025, alongside German government officials and were later published in NATO’s official transcript and press coverage.

In his address, Rutte told NATO members that Russia may be capable of initiating military force against NATO territory within the next five years, and that Europe must rapidly expand its defence capabilities and spending to deter Moscow’s ambitions. “Too many believe the time is on our side. It is not. The time for action is now,” he warned, urging a dramatic increase in defence production and readiness.

At the core of the alliance’s long-term strategy is a historic 2025 agreement reached at the Hague Summit, where NATO member states consented to an ambitious plan to raise defence spending to 5 % of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035. This represents a substantial elevation from the previous NATO guideline of 2 %, reflecting the perception among alliance leadership that conventional deterrence forces must be reinforced across Europe.

Official NATO Rhetoric: Preparing for the Unthinkable

In official statements and press releases, NATO leaders have shifted from abstract deterrence rhetoric to explicit preparedness language. Rutte’s remarks in Berlin were echoed in NATO public documents and headlines across allied capitals. The alliance’s institutional communications frame Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine as having shattered the post-Cold War peace, significantly increasing the risk of a broader European conflict if unchecked by robust deterrent measures.

“NATO faces the most dangerous security environment since the end of the Cold War,” NATO’s official deterrence and defence page asserts, noting a spectrum of threats from conventional military aggression to asymmetric threats like cyber attacks and infrastructure disruption.

Counter-Claims and Strategic Context

Moscow has responded to Western security concerns with mixed messaging. In early December 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a provocative remark that if “Europe wants war, then Russia is ready to fight,” a statement that Western analysts interpreted as both a warning and a strategic gambit. Days later, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov publicly denied any intent to attack NATO or revive the Soviet Union, calling such assertions “complete stupidity” while dismissing Western claims of aggressive Russian designs.

This rhetorical back-and-forth underscores a deeper strategic contest: NATO seeks to reinforce its collective defence posture, while Russia aims to shape perceptions over its intentions. NATO’s articulation of threat and its push for ready forces are squarely aimed at deterring Moscow by convincing both potential adversaries and hesitant NATO allies that the alliance can and will defend its territory.

Shifting Defence Paradigms

Beyond statements, NATO and its partners are adjusting defence postures. Long-planned interoperability exercises like Steadfast Defender 2024 — the largest since the Cold War — have already tested Article 5 response mechanisms and forward deployment readiness across the Atlantic alliance.

Moreover, European defence initiatives such as Readiness 2030 reflect an emerging continental strategy to strengthen military industrial bases and reduce reliance on external support amid concerns about fluctuating U.S. commitments.

Conclusion — Strategic Imperatives Ahead

NATO’s unequivocal warnings mark a decisive moment for NATO’s strategic posture. With alliance leadership openly discussing the likelihood of a high-intensity conflict and emphasising the need for accelerated defence spending and readiness measures, the era of post-Cold War deterrence appears definitively behind us. Whether NATO’s political cohesion holds in the face of these demands — and whether Russia’s true strategic intentions match the alarming rhetoric on both sides — will shape European and global security for the decade ahead.

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APA Sources
NATO. (2025, December 11). Joint press conference by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte with German Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz [Press release]. NATO.
NATO. (n.d.). Deterrence and defence. NATO.
Agreement on 5% NATO defence spending by 2035. (2025). In Wikipedia.
Steadfast Defender 2024. (2024). In Wikipedia.
Readiness 2030. (2025). In Wikipedia.
Reuters. (2025, December 9). Putin does not want to restore the U.S.S.R. or attack NATO, the Kremlin says. Reuters.
Euronews. (2025, December 3). Ready for war in 2029: Is a Russian attack on NATO a real possibility? Euronews.