Call it shadow or hybrid, everything points to war and the reluctance to call it that comes from decades of complacency on security.

NATO head Mark Rutte warned the US-led transatlantic alliance on Thursday that it was not ready for the threats it would face from Russia in the coming years and called for a shift to a wartime mindset - with much higher defense spending.

New NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned Europe Thursday that Russia's Vladimir Putin wants to "wipe Ukraine off the map" and might come for other parts of Europe next. "It is time to shift to a wartime mindset," Rutte said at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels, in his first major speech since taking NATO's helm in October.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was ready and willing to meet with President-elect Trump if he “wants it” after four years without communication. “What can I offer to the President-elect

"We’re as close as we’ve been to war with Russia since the Second World War [and] we announce a half billion cut in our conventional defence. It was the lack of conventional defence that encouraged Putin to invade Ukraine in the first place", he said.

NATO's Secretary General Mark Rutte visited a military training site in Bulgaria, highlighting the significance of a multinational unit formed in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The unit, made up of 1,

Governments need to make more orders and defense contractors have to take more risks, NATO’s secretary-general said.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Thursday the alliance needs to shift to a "wartime mindset" in the face of increased aggression from Russia and new threats from China. The NATO chief called on the alliance to "turbocharge" defence production and spending during a speech at a think tank event in Brussels aimed at launching a debate on military investment.

The possibility of sending European troops to Ukraine was discussed in Brussels. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and leaders of European NATO countries discussed this topic.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, appeared to threaten senior staff at The Times newspaper.

A new NATO command in the German city of Wiesbaden has taken up its work to coordinate Western military aid for Ukraine, the alliance's Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday.