Quotes
Exercise Steadfast Dart demonstrates our unshakeable commitment to NATO and highlights the U.K.’s key leadership role in the alliance,
said Luke Pollard, a British deputy minister for defense, ahead of the exercise
We now realize that the world we thought would exist has almost disappeared,
Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias told a security conference in Washington this week
Members of this contact group must meet the moment,
Hegseth said to the assembled group pf approximately 50 member countries who have been providing support to Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion
The United States will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship which encourages dependence, rather our relationship will prioritize empowering Europe to own responsibility for its own security,
Hegseth saidPart of this is speaking frankly with your people about how this threat can only be met by spending more on defense,
he said, urging attendees to donate more ammunition and equipment to Ukraine and expand their defense industrial bases
Chasing this illusory goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering,
he saidThe key part is "without US involvement". Five years sounds like a long time, until you consider how long serious European rearmament would take & the respective starting positions of Europe and Russia. And consider the limited scope of what we've managed in three years 2022-25."
Commenting on the report, Shashank Joshi, the defense editor at The Economist, wrote on X
I don't think Russia has the capability or intent of an offensive war. I'm also very wary of European intelligence services confidently making predictions, given their inability to predict Russia's invasion of Feb 22. Or Crimea in 2014.
John Foreman, a former U.K. Defense Attaché in Moscow and Kyiv, wrote on X
The Ministry of Defence of Russia must be ready for any development of events, including a possible military conflict with NATO in Europe in the next decade,
Andrei Belousov said
We see an increased willingness on the Russian side to challenge NATO, and we see an
she said
Russia is likely to be more willing to use military force in a regional war against one or more European NATO countries if it perceives NATO as militarily weakened or politically divided,
states the report, which was released Tuesday
This is particularly true if Russia assesses that the U.S. cannot or will not support the European NATO countries in a war with Russia,
it continues, emphasizing that