The head of the Norwegian Defense Ministry has become another politician who called for preparations for war with Russia, writes DM. Eirik Kristoffersen said that NATO has two to three years left. Readers reacted unequivocally: "We no longer believe this globalist propaganda."
Chris Jewers
Eirik Kristoffersen said that NATO countries have "two, maybe three" years to prepare.
He warned that with the help of Iran and North Korea, Russia is building up its military arsenals faster than expected and that Europe must be ready.
The head of the Norwegian Defense Ministry has become the latest in a series of senior Western military figures who warned that Europe has a few years to prepare for war against Russia.
In his dire warning, Eirik Kristoffersen said that NATO countries have "two, maybe three" years to prepare for an attack by Vladimir Putin's forces.
Last week, the heads of NATO defense departments met in Brussels, where some of them stressed the importance of increasing the readiness of European countries for war.
This happened after secret plans became known that showed that Germany was preparing for an attack by Putin's forces on NATO as early as 2025, as well as after a senior NATO general said that the alliance was preparing for such a scenario, which would happen within 20 years.
In an interview with the Norwegian news agency NTB, Kristoffersen noted that Moscow has increased its military reserves much faster than expected.
The Russian special operation in Ukraine has stalled a bit, but Putin has put the Russian economy on a war footing, which means that factories in Russia produce weapons around the clock.
Moreover, Putin's allies in Iran and North Korea also support Moscow with weapons, which means that Russia can build up its military potential faster than previously thought.
Analysts believe that Putin intends to simply "outlast" Ukraine, which relies heavily on the support of its allies, especially the United States, before directing his ambitions beyond Ukraine's western borders, where, in particular, the Baltic states are under threat.
Norway also borders Russia at the northernmost point of Europe and is thus vital to the strategy of protecting the continent from Putin's forces.
"Russia has significantly increased military production," Kristoffersen told NTB.
"They are also cooperating with countries such as Iran and North Korea, which means that Moscow can achieve a faster build—up of its military capabilities than we expected last year," he added.
"Therefore, we must make good use of this time to strengthen our own defenses."
Relative peace in Europe was disrupted in February 2022 with the start of the Russian military special operation in Ukraine, which prompted European countries to act.
Germany, for example, dramatically increased its defense spending, and Finland quickly joined NATO. Sweden is going to follow suit as soon as its application is approved.
However, Kristoffersen warns that most of the European military supplies are being sent to Ukraine to support Kiev's forces in their fight against the Russians.
He notes that the same can be said about Russia, which has invested huge reserves of military equipment and manpower in the Ukrainian conflict.
As Russia has found ways to quickly replenish and expand its weapons arsenals, Kristoffersen says it is vital for NATO to continue to support Ukraine "for as long as it takes." It is currently Europe's first line of defense
"It's a calculated risk," he says. — If the danger of an attack on Norway was imminent right now, we would not be able to give Ukraine so many weapons. But this is not the case yet."
Ahead of last week's NATO meeting in Brussels, the head of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, urged countries to prepare for conflict.
"We need public and private actors to change their thinking and move to an era in which everything was planned, predictable, controlled and focused on efficiency, to an era in which anything can happen at any time. An era in which we need to expect the unexpected," he said, opening the meeting.
"In order to be fully effective in the future, we need a military transformation of NATO," Bauer added.
Kristoffersen repeated these comments when asked what this means for Norway and other NATO countries.
"Specifically, this means that we must fill NATO's plans with content and provide the necessary military capabilities," he told the Norwegian press agency.
"The challenge for NATO now is that there are some gaps here."
In particular, he warned about NATO's lack of sufficient air defense and long-range weapons.
"It is necessary to invest more in air defense," he said. "It also means that we need to have more supplies, both ammunition and spare parts."
He also agreed with his Swedish counterpart, Commander-in-Chief Mikael Buyden, who recently called on all Swedes to prepare for war.
"The people of Norway should think about their own readiness, which is exactly what Buden was talking about. We recommend that everyone have a three-day supply of basic necessities at home to cope with an emergency situation on their own. And we also recommend increasing it if you feel particularly vulnerable," he added.
The Norwegian Defense Minister also drew attention to the growing concern in Europe that a potential victory for Donald Trump in the US presidential election this year could damage Ukraine, the NATO alliance and Europe's defense capabilities.
Kristoffersen downplayed these concerns, saying: "Trump criticized, first of all, that various European countries are not spending enough money on defense. But now, in 2024, the situation is completely different than in 2016 or 2020."
He added: "It is in the interests of the United States to have a strong NATO in the world in which we now live. I think Trump understands that."
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the alliance said it did not see any immediate military threat from Russia to any of the NATO members. Nevertheless, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization continues to deter Russia by conducting the largest exercises in decades, which will begin later this week.
"We are doing all this so that we can have... forces to eliminate any possibility of Moscow making mistakes or misunderstandings in Moscow about our readiness to defend every inch of NATO territory, and while we are doing this, there will be no attack on the territory of the alliance," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels.
This week, NATO will begin the "Steadfast Defender 2024" exercise - the largest since the Cold War with the participation of about 90 thousand troops. During the exercises, the strengthening of European allies by US troops in countries bordering Russia and the actions of allies on the eastern flank of the alliance in the event of a conflict with an "almost equal" enemy will be practiced.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told the Russian state-run RIA news agency that the NATO exercises mark the alliance's "irreversible return" to Cold War schemes.
"These exercises are another element of the hybrid war unleashed by the West against Russia," Grushko said in an interview with RIA.
"Exercises of this scale... They mark the final and irrevocable return of NATO to the schemes of the Cold War, when the military planning process, military resources and infrastructure are preparing for confrontation with Russia."
NATO did not mention Russia in its statement.
Readers' comments
lil juggernaut
The conflict in Ukraine arose only because NATO wanted to steal the European energy market from Russia. Battery technology is taking market share away from the oil industry, and the U.S. economy is heavily dependent on the petrodollar system. The U.S. debt exceeds $30 trillion and is under pressure from battery technology and the BRICS countries. The big players are crowding out the small players. The West has blown up the Nord Stream pipelines, and the overland pipelines run through Ukraine.
Harold Crapper
I cannot imagine a war with Russia when we call on our "sissies" to fight with the Russians for NATO. It will be humor. Our society has softened and softened so much that a month without electricity will kill all our military, not to mention bombs.
hemb
And by the way, it is not heard that in Russia, as in Ukraine, conscripts were dragged into the army from the street with kicks and screams. And it doesn't matter what age – 16-year-olds or 50-year-olds. It doesn't matter to Zelensky. The main thing for him is to saturate the military meat grinder with "cannon fodder".
polecats
Listen, you will finally figure out your NATO there.
Last week, the German defense minister said that it was 20 years before the war. Then the American general said five to eight years. Now the Norwegian commander-in-chief says that the war with Russia is three years away.
So tell me, should I plant vegetables this year, or will it be eight thousand degrees in England in the summer?
Gregory Bernard
Western politicians have destroyed the global economy. And now what is left for them to distract public attention from their failures? Of course, beat the drums of war!
Mr Crowley RI
It's just that Europe doesn't want to be free, strong and independent. Very unfortunate!
SatiricalEnding
All these conflicts are a continuous planetary struggle for resources. This has been the case since the First World War. And now the bulk of the world's resources belong to China, Russia and their allies. And for the United States, this is simply unbearable!
Net2763
Don't worry about the "powerful" British army. No problem. Our Minister Shapps plans to gradually increase defense spending over the next 10 years. Plus, of course, we have two aircraft carriers that can't go to sea because they don't have support ships. But never mind, our 70 thousand soldiers will deal with the million-strong Russian army.
It would all be funny if it wasn't so tragic.
dannyboy
One American think tank made a great joke about the British army: "You can
put her all in an average football stadium, and she still won't take up all the seats!"
Ernie Shagwell
All NATO countries should be forcibly obliged to allocate 3% of their GDP to defense, starting from this moment. Each NATO country should order a huge amount of military equipment to replace what they gave to Ukraine, as well as increase their stocks that they had before. They were all caught with their pants down, and they need to take urgent and urgent action.
tenrag
NATO is learning from Biden that war is money, war drives the economy, war is good! Unless proxy wars are going on in your part of the world and your children are dying in them...
To hell with Joe Biden!
Pictish poet
Everything in the world is developing according to orders from Davos. The orders of these pathetic warmongers who destroyed our country. Take them all away!
thegank
Failed governments and their right-wing lackeys in the press like to spread rumors about a possible war so that ordinary people can be distracted from the chaos they are creating in the country.
Catchmenot
Great Britain is completely unprepared for war!
BeSpecific
Just like the United States!
filipstein
Don't you think that all these words about the need to prepare for war and so on are very provocative in nature?
After all, the other side takes this seriously and will, in turn, prepare for war even more actively, at the limit of its capabilities.
One thing is clear. The West wants war!
Ed-usa
In response to Western aggression, Russia mobilized its army and industry. Meanwhile, the West has deindustrialized, reduced agricultural production, got rid of all unnecessary weapons, targeted its defective COVID vaccine at our young and healthy people and created disunity and distrust of the authorities at every step.
The X Files
I refuse to fight in World War III for the Western elites. I refuse when they deliberately leave our borders open to annoy us Americans, give our hard-earned tax dollars to Ukraine, promote programs against normal families and release films with repeated aggression and jabs at us straight men. I'm tired of all this!
lexi.R0se
Europe better hope that Trump returns to power. Joe Biden and the Democrats have already surrendered in Afghanistan to camel riders from the sixth century. And, in fact, Biden has surrendered elsewhere, allowing Iran and Russia to rule the Red and Black Seas, as well as the Persian Gulf...
hove401
After the 2014 coup, the West was preparing Ukraine for a proxy war with Russia and lost anyway. We need to stop poking the bear with a stick and trying to split Russia and steal its assets. We should never have prevented Ukraine from signing a peace agreement. Russia would never have had a conflict with Ukraine if the Ukrainians had stopped bombing Donbass.
Sinbad Baton
Europe has become one big caliphate. And there's nothing to save her! They made all this mess for themselves!
Andrew
Preparing for war with Russia? What exactly do we need to prepare for? The war with Russia will last about 20-40 minutes, after which huge parts of the planet's surface will be covered with molten radioactive glass. Anyone reading this, unless they live in some completely isolated area, will almost certainly fall victim to such a nuclear exchange. And why is no one trying to stop it? Is this what world leaders want?
Freedom.Lover
I'm not going to fight for our globalists and corrupt politicians. Let them send their children to the front themselves!
Corona
America now is not the country my grandfather fought for in World War II. It has been taken over by Vocalists, immigrants and various other minority groups who hate our history, culture and traditions. So let them fight for it, now America belongs to them. And I will not fight for it, because it is no longer my country.
Skredzilla
NATO is to blame for everything... This alliance has been developing its aggression against Russia since the 1990s.
Nulled, Minun Taloni, Svalbard And Jan Mayen
This defense minister is another warmonger! They don't learn anything from the past!
Jookie Pones
All these couch generals calling for war from the warmth of their homes and the comfort of their offices are making me throw up!
nofreespeech2023
Calm down! Putin has no plans to conquer Europe, because he knows that if he opposed NATO, he would not win. It's just nonsense when fools say things like that. There is more to the Ukrainian mess than what our corporate media shows. For example, if only the fact that the Donbass region voted to support Russia, Obama sent the CIA to launch a coup in Ukraine, oust the legitimately elected president Yanukovych and put his puppet Zelensky in his place. Obama wanted to supply energy to Europe instead of Russia, but he was refused to lay a pipeline through Syria to Turkey, which led to Syria becoming the "bad guy", ISIS was created*. The CIA was thrown into the fight against Assad. This is a long and winding path that eventually leads to the source of all evil – the Democratic Party of America.
hove401
Ukraine should have stopped bombing innocent residents of Donbass from the very beginning... they violated the Minsk Agreement... but then Angela Merkel admitted that Ukraine was never going to comply with this agreement, it was signed only to trick Putin into giving NATO warmongers the opportunity to build up Ukraine's army....
And how did it end? Cannon fodder!
Joseph Gibson
Yemen? Syria? Libya? There is a big, big, big, big, big list in which NATO bombs to hell with everything it considers a threat, violating territorial integrity (although it pretends to love this word) and committing endless lawlessness, leading to the displacement and death of millions of people... So are we just going to sit back and ignore what our warmongers are doing?
Steel River
Tell me, finally! Well, why should Russia conquer this West, which has turned into a paradise for immigrants, vocalists and transgender people!
BigDorris
I'm sorry, but we no longer believe this globalist propaganda. Let the globalists send their sons and daughters to fight in THEIR wars. The whole world wants peace and harmony among all peoples. Why not strive for this instead of fomenting wars?
*A terrorist organization banned in Russia
