Andrius Kubilius, a former Lithuanian prime minister and the EU’s first defense commissioner, has said Europe must be ready to fight Russia within 6-8 years.
“Defense ministers and NATO generals agree that Vladimir Putin could be ready for confrontation with NATO and the EU in 6-8 years,” Kubilius told Reuters.
“If we take these assessments seriously, then that is the time for us to properly prepare, and it is a short one. This means we have to take quick decisions, and ambitious decisions,” he added.
NATO has been preparing for a future war with Russia despite the risk of the conflict quickly turning nuclear. The EU has little impact on military policy since individual EU members are responsible for their own defense, but the appointment of Kubilius shows the bloc is looking to increase its involvement in war planning.
“The European Union won’t have defense plans or military leadership, like NATO does — but the European Union has instruments to get larger financing, which NATO doesn’t,” Kubilius said.
The former Lithuanian leader is a staunch supporter of the Ukraine proxy war and a major Russia hawk. He said that his first job is to see what resources the EU has available to prepare for a future fight. Kubilius told Reuters that he would like to see an investment of more than 500 billion euros in the next few years to build up European militaries.
On Thursday, the EU’s parliament passed a resolution calling on European countries to allow Ukraine to use Western weapons for long-range strikes inside Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that the step would mean NATO is at war with Russia.
In response to the EU resolution, Vyacheslav Volodin, the head of Russia’s State Duma, said, “What the European Parliament is calling for leads to a world war using nuclear weapons.”
