Russia may be ready to militarily attack countries from NATO in five to eight years if it decides to do so, a senior German military official was quoted as saying by Reuters and BTA. This will happen after Moscow recovers its forces from the war with Ukraine.
"By then, according to our analysis, Russia (will have) recovered its forces to such an extent that an attack on NATO on the basis of the pact could be possible,” Lt. Gen. Carsten Breuer told journalists during a visit in Poland.
"I'm not saying it will happen, but it might be possible," he pointed out.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 caused the deepest crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
But the Kremlin regularly dismisses Western suggestions that it may be considering an attack on NATO as completely nonsensical.
President Vladimir Putin reiterated last month that Russia has no plans to attack any NATO country, although he said he would shoot down any F-16 fighter jets supplied by the West to Ukraine.
Of the 32 NATO member countries, six share a common border with Russia: Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
Russia now appears to be gaining the upper hand in Ukraine, where the conflict is being defined as both grueling trench warfare reminiscent of World War I and high-tech drone warfare.
Moscow now controls almost a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed in 2014
„We see that Russia is producing a lot of war material and not sending all this material to the front line in Ukraine... so in 2029 we have to be ready,”, German defense chief Breuer said. "What we see is a threat five to eight years from now," he added.
Ukrainian officials said their armed forces numbered around 800,000, while in December Putin ordered the Russian military to be increased by another 170,000 troops to 1.3 million.
Except for personnel, Moscow's defense spending is less than Ukraine's. It earmarked $109 billion for the sector in 2024, more than double Ukraine's equivalent of $43.8 billion.