NATO warns of all-out war with Russia in the next 20 years

An all-out war with Russia could develop within the next 20 years, a top NATO official has warned as the bloc prepared for its biggest military exercises in decades.

“We have to realize it’s not a given that we are in peace,” Dutch Adm. Rob Bauer, chairman of NATO’s military committee, told reporters after a meeting of the alliance’s defense chiefs in Brussels.
“And that’s why we [NATO forces] are preparing for a conflict with Russia,” he said.

His warning came ahead of next week’s start of military drills — involving around 90,000 troops and lasting months — aimed at proving the alliance can defend its territory up to its border with Russia.

Bauer also said that a large number of civilians would also need to be mobilized in case of war, and argued that governments in the alliance need to start planning for such a massive mobilization.