Putin’s ally in Europe: NATO is preparing for war “much faster”

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said on Monday that in his view NATO member states were rapidly preparing for a possible war with Russia.

“They are not ready now, but I think they will be ready. They are already preparing for a conflict with the Russian Federation and are preparing in every way much faster than some people would like to see,” Vučić told Serbian television channel Pink, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

“We know this from the military preparations. We know how they are carried out. And I want to tell you, they are preparing for a military conflict,” he said.

Newsweek NATO asked for comment via email.

Russia is Serbia’s main ally in blocking international recognition of its former province of Kosovo, and Vučić has stressed that he will not take sides in the Russian-Ukrainian war, refusing to join Western sanctions against Moscow following President Vladimir Putin’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

On July 2, after a meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko in Belgrade, Vučić described relations between Serbia and Russia as “very good.” However, his country has indirectly supplied Ukraine with ammunition worth around 800 million euros ($871 million). FT reported.

Vučić said on Monday: “As long as no people from the West die or only volunteers die, the West does not care how many Ukrainians die.”

Tensions between Russia and the West remained high during Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, with Moscow accusing the alliance of being complicit in the war by providing Kyiv with military aid and weapons.

The Serbian president’s comments came weeks after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters that the military alliance had more than 500,000 troops in high readiness, meaning troops could be deployed within 30 days.

“Since 2014, NATO has undergone the most significant transformation of our collective defense in a generation. We have implemented the most comprehensive defense plans since the Cold War,” Stoltenberg said on June 18 at a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“We have 500,000 troops in high readiness and have doubled the number of our battle groups in the eastern part of the alliance,” Stoltenberg continued. He described Russia’s war in Ukraine as a “brutal attack on a peaceful, democratic nation.”

“This war is supported by China, North Korea and Iran. They want the United States to fail. They want NATO to fail. If they succeed in Ukraine, it will make us more vulnerable and the world more dangerous. So our support for Ukraine is not charity. It is in our own security interests,” he said.

Stoltenberg added: “We all want this war to end. But a Russian occupation of Ukraine does not offer peace. And surrender to Putin does not offer security. The stronger our support, the sooner the war will end.”

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