During a conference in Brussels, NATO Military Committee Chairman Admiral Rob Bauer said that NATO leadership is considering conducting precise, preemptive strikes on Russian territory in the event of an armed conflict between Moscow and the Alliance.
‘It’s smarter not to sit and wait until we are attacked, but to target Russian launchers if they attack. We must deliver the first strike’, said Bauer.
He added that the North Atlantic Alliance must replenish its weapons stockpiles, modernize air defense systems, and enhance precision strike systems.
Earlier, Bauer stated that the management of major Western companies should be prepared for wartime conditions and adjust their production and distribution lines accordingly to become less vulnerable to blackmail from Russia and China.
Rob Bauer in Brussels said the Russians do not pose the same threat as they did in February 2022, so we have some time to prepare. He pointed to the state of military equipment and the level of soldier training. He added that for the West, this means increasing investments in the arms industry.
‘We are in direct conflict with Russia’
In mid-October, the head of the German Federal Intelligence Service, Bruno Kahl, warned that Russia might attack NATO before 2030. According to him, the Kremlin sees Germany as an enemy because Berlin is the second-largest supporter of Kyiv.
He also stressed that the likelihood of NATO invoking the mutual defense article in the coming years will remain high.
Kahl added that Vladimir Putin aims to increase the Kremlin’s influence in Europe and expel the United States’ military presence from the continent, as US defense spending far exceeds that of European Union countries.
‘We are in direct conflict with Russia’, said Kahl, also noting that Putin’s goal is not only to take over Ukraine but also to ‘strive for a new world order.’
Vladimir Putin previously stated that Russia does not intend to fight with the North Atlantic Alliance because US defense expenditures vastly exceed Russian spending.
He also appealed not to believe reports about Moscow’s plans to attack Europe.
‘What they say about us going to attack Europe after Ukraine is complete nonsense, intimidating their own population, solely with the purpose to beat money out of them, out of their people’, stated Putin.