Thread: NATO Ally Warns of Russia Launching 'Large-Scale' War in Europe

Denmark has warned that Russia could be ready to wage a "large-scale war" in Europe within the next five years.


In a new report, the Danish Defense Intelligence Service (DDIS) has said that while "there is currently no threat of a regular military attack on the Kingdom," it is likely that the "military threat from Russia will increase over the coming years."


Newsweek reached out to the Danish Defense Intelligence Service for comment via email.

Why It Matters


The publication of the DDIS' report comes as President Donald Trump pushes for a swift end to the Russia-Ukraine war, and his special envoy to the two countries, Keith Kellogg, holds discussions with NATO allies to understand what they want to contribute to a peace plan. If Trump brings an end to the war or freezes the conflict, the DDIS report noted that Russia would "be able to free up significant military resources and thereby increase its military ability to pose a direct threat to NATO."


A Russian attack on any NATO member would trigger Article 5 of the alliance's charter, which states that a strike on one member state would be met with a collective response.


What To Know


"Russia is likely to be more willing to use military force in a regional war against one or more European NATO countries if Russia perceives NATO as militarily weakened or politically divided," Denmark's defense intelligence agency said.


"This is especially true if Russia assesses that the United States cannot or will not support the European NATO countries in a war with Russia," it added. "In such a situation, Russia's willingness to use military force will depend on an assessment of the opponent's ability to both defend itself and harm Russia."

The report also noted that economic and military support from China, North Korea and Iran has bolstered Russia's defenses and is "increasingly contributing to freeing up resources for Russia's buildup against NATO."

The DDIS predicted that within six months of any end to fighting in Ukraine, Russia would be able to fight a local war with a bordering country, and in approximately two years it would "constitute a credible threat to one or more NATO countries and thus be ready for a regional war against several countries in the Baltic Sea region."


The agency also said that in such a scenario, in about five years Russia could be "ready for a large-scale war on the European continent-where the United States does not get involved."


This idea of Russia potentially attacking Europe is not new, and allies in the region have been preparing their defenses to counter any threat from Moscow.

What People Are Saying


In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Anton Gerashchenko, the former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, posted a translation of an interview given by Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen: "If we end this war now, some kind of a frozen conflict, a ceasefire, it will give Russia the possibility to mobilize more funds, people, and maybe to attack another country in Europe.


"Russia and Putin is not only threatening Ukraine but all of us."


Commenting on the report, Shashank Joshi, the defense editor at The Economist, wrote on X: "The 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."


John Foreman, a former U.K. Defense Attaché in Moscow and Kyiv, 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."

What Happens Next


How NATO will continue to bolster its defenses in preparation for possible conflict with Russia remains to be seen.

NATO Ally Warns of Russia Launching 'Large-Scale' War in Europe - Newsweek

Global war fears rising among security experts: Survey

Global war fears are rising among experts around the world, with more than 40 percent expecting a new world conflict in the next decade, according to a survey released Wednesday.


The poll from the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security found that 40.5 percent of security experts across more than 60 countries think that by 2035, there will be a multifront war among the most powerful nations. Nearly 60 percent of those surveyed said the opposite.

If another world war breaks out, the use of nuclear weapons seems likely, the respondents said; about 48 percent of experts say they expect nuclear weapons to be utilized in the coming 10 years by at least one nation if a larger conflict breaks out, per the poll.


The potential fighting could also take place in space. Roughly 45 percent of the survey’s respondents expect a war that could, at least in some capacity, take place in space within the next decade.


The conflict will also likely have devastating consequences for the global economy. About 28 percent of experts said a war between major military nations would be the biggest “threat to global prosperity over the next ten years.” The only other threat that ranked higher was climate change, at nearly 30 percent, according to the survey.


Most of the experts, 65 percent, “somewhat or strongly” agreed that China will attempt to take over Taiwan within the next decade. About 24 percent disagreed with that assessment. In last year’s poll, 50 percent said Beijing would attempt a takeover the Taiwan, while 30 percent had the opposite opinion, the Atlantic Council noted.

“This growing awakening on the part of the United States and its allies can become the basis for a call to action for the populations, governments, and militaries of these countries,” Markus Garlauskas, the Scowcroft Center’s director of the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative, said in a statement.

“The United States has typically waited until war was thrust upon it before preparing comprehensively,” he added. “Now is the time to act, to prepare, ideally to deter such aggression, and to be ready to hold firm if deterrence fails and we face either a short, sharp war or a protracted one.”

Another 45 percent of security experts “somewhat or strongly” agreed that Russia and NATO countries could be in direct military combat within the next decade, an uptick from last year’s iteration of the survey, when 29 percent said the same thing.


The Scowcroft Center poll was conducted in November and early December 2024 among 357 respondents. The survey does not list a margin of error.

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It is already happening, in a small, non-trivial way.



Spotlight on the Shadow War: Inside Russia’s Attacks on NATO Territory – CSCE

Denmark has good grounds to worry probably the only democracy to be occupoied by both Russia and German troops in lving memory and now threatened by so called ally USA, who we must recall used nuclear weapons against civilians and host of acts against allies like invading Commonwealth Island Grenada.

Usually such indiscretions are forgiven by the tremendous aid and defensive shield offereed but with a lunatic at the wheel slavering over the rare earths under Greenland, beaches of Gaza for free , threat to Panama , Canada could it be Trump is a clear and present danger?

The ruzzians have pretty well had their knees cut out from under them military, most of their tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery and ADA have been wiped out in Ukraine. The one thing that they do still have is manpower. They could use the same "meat assault" wave tactics they have used in Ukraine that could overrun some of the small Baltic States. I personally think that NATO airpower alone could defeat the ruzzians if America was involved, however a fruit loop like drumpf could choose to sit it out.

That is the real problem. NATO needs to immediately increase defense spending overnight and ramp up defense production to Cold War levels. This must be done immediately.