Is Europe prepared for the third world war on its soil?

Thursday, June 15, 2023. NATO will analyze thousands of classified documents detailing regional plans and guidelines for how members can improve their forces and logistics infrastructure.

Putin's invasion of Ukraine has encouraged NATO members to plan the unthinkable, namely a direct conflict with Russia, US magazine Newsweek reported.

But ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, which begins on July 11, where dealing with Russia will be high on the agenda, Sir Richard Shirreff, the former deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said NATO is not ready for war with Moscow.

"It needs a real kick up the backside," he told Newsweek, pointing to cuts in military budgets among alliance members, though there are exceptions, such as Poland. "There's a large-scale war going on in Eastern Europe. It's a war on the ground and sky, so you must invest in the sky and the land forces with modern weapons." 

Last year at the summit in Madrid (NATO Secretary General), Jens Stoltenberg announced that NATO would increase the number of high readiness forces to 300,000, and that did not happen," said Shirreff.

German vehicle column near Vitebsk in June - July 1941

A former British general said the British military is an example of such cuts to the bloc, which were reduced to "ridiculous proportions" because the defense establishment believed that China, not Russia, was the main long-term threat.

"Geography is important here, and Russia is the wolf closest to the pack," said Shirev, a Strategia Worldwide consulting firm partner.

German Tanks with the Ukraine flag on the east war front of Ukraine

 on the way to the Russian army ( again )  in June 2023.

He believes there has been a "deterrence failure" by the alliance, which missed an opportunity to build capabilities after Putin seized Crimea in 2014.

"Am I convinced that NATO will be able to build forces ready for a conventional war with Russia? No, I'm not," said the British general.

Even though the Kremlin and Russian state media say this is a proxy war between Moscow and NATO, the alliance has tried to avoid a direct role in the fighting, instead supplying Ukraine with equipment to counter its aggression against Moscow, writes Newsweek.

In May, one of NATO's top officials, Admiral Rob Bauer, said that the alliance must prepare for "a conflict could arise at any time" directly with Moscow, Reuters reported.

A war can be started by a trivial cause, an accident or coincidence, or even a false flag.

@world.war.3.2023