Rutte: "We are the next Russian target"

At a press conference, he said that NATO must make every effort to prevent a war that could be “on the scale of the wars our grandfathers and great-grandfathers experienced,” Sky News reports.

According to him, too many NATO allies do not feel the urgency of the Russian threat to Europe or the need to quickly increase defense spending and production to prevent such a war from happening.

“We are the next target of Russia. I fear that too many are quietly complacent. Too many people believe that time is on our side. It is not. The time for action is now,” he said.

Rutte added that Russia could be ready to use military force against NATO within five years, but he is confident that the U.S. and Europe can reach an agreement on Ukraine.

“But the U.S. cannot be safe without a secure Europe,” he said.

He also stated that Russia has “become even more brazen, reckless, and brutal toward NATO and Ukraine.”