{"id":628035,"date":"2025-12-12T09:28:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T09:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/628035\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T09:28:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T09:28:20","slug":"europe-must-be-ready-to-deter-russia-as-shadow-of-war-looms-minister-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/628035\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe must be ready to deter Russia as \u2018shadow of war\u2019 looms, minister warns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Europe must be ready to deter Russia<\/a> as the \u201cshadow of war<\/a>\u201d looms, a minister has warned, echoing alarming words from<\/a> the head of Nato<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Armed forces minister Al Carns said countries need to \u201cincrease our lethality\u201d and stop outsourcing it to others.<\/p>\n

His warning comes after Nato secretary general Mark Rutte<\/a> called Europe \u201cRussia\u2019s next target\u201d<\/a> and said countries must prepare for a \u201cscale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured\u201d.<\/p>\n

Precarious peace efforts<\/a> surrounding a US<\/a>-led plan to end Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine<\/a> are ongoing, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer<\/a> insisting US president Donald Trump<\/a> and his European counterparts are aligned on what they want for Kyiv.<\/p>\n

But relations between Europe and the US are strained after the Trump administration\u2019s national security strategy accused European officials of holding \u201cunrealistic expectations\u201d for the invasion.<\/p>\n

\"Armed<\/p>\n

Armed forces minister Al Carns said countries need to \u2018increase our lethality\u2019 and stop outsourcing it to others (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Mr Carns told The Telegraph: \u201cFor the last 50 to 60 years, we have been reliant on US security guarantees and now, with multipolar threats facing the US, they may not be as forthright as they have in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Mr Trump has agreed he is \u201cfully in\u201d Nato and its Article 5 collective defence clause, \u201cthere is a resource issue where they need to look both east and west\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past, in wars of choice, we\u2019ve outsourced our lethality to others. We\u2019ve got to make sure that we increase our lethality \u2026 across all of our single services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having \u201coutsourced\u201d to the US in the past, Europe and the UK have now pledged to \u201cup our game on defence spending\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

\"Nato<\/p>\n

Nato secretary general Mark Rutte has called Europe \u2018Russia\u2019s next target\u2019 (REUTERS)<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe shadow of war is knocking on Europe\u2019s door once more. That\u2019s the reality. We\u2019ve got to be prepared to deter it. Collectively in Nato, we\u2019ve got to remember that numerically \u2013 we outmatch Russia significantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ukraine has pushed back against a US-drafted plan and submitted its own 20-point document to Washington as part of negotiations.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> said the US has proposed a possible \u201cfree economic zone\u201d in the Donbas region, which would see Ukrainian forces withdraw and Russia agree to remain where they are and not enter the territory.<\/p>\n

He reportedly said there would need to be elections or a referendum for Ukraine to approve any such move.<\/p>\n

\"British<\/p>\n

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Downing Street on Monday (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The UK and French-led coalition of the willing group of countries on Thursday discussed progress on mobilising frozen Russian sovereign assets to use to fund Ukraine and agreed it was a \u201cpivotal moment\u201d for Kyiv and the Euro-Atlantic region.<\/p>\n

Mr Zelensky told the meeting he was seeking a framework document on security guarantees from the US that he wanted to be approved by Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would mean real, solid, legally binding security guarantees for our country, and they must actually be implemented,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump has this week criticised Ukraine\u2019s European allies as \u201cweak\u201d leaders of \u201cdecaying\u201d nations failing to \u201cproduce\u201d anything as \u201cthe war just keeps going on and on\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The White House said on Thursday that the US president was \u2018sick of meetings just for the sake of meeting\u2019 and \u2018wants action\u2019 (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

But he spoke to Sir Keir, French president Emmanuel and German chancellor Friedrich Merz on Wednesday in a call during which they discussed proposals to end the war in \u201cpretty strong terms\u201d, according to Mr Trump.<\/p>\n

However, the White House said on Thursday that the US president was \u201csick of meetings just for the sake of meeting\u201d and \u201cwants action\u201d.<\/p>\n

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the US had not committed to sending an official to talks expected on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there is a real chance of signing a peace agreement, if we feel like those meetings are worthy of someone of the United States\u2019s time this weekend, then we will send a representative,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Europe must be ready to deter Russia as the \u201cshadow of war\u201d looms, a minister has warned, echoing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[194672,32,299,395,807,2992,14015,332,42812,657,658],"class_list":{"0":"post-628035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-countries-need","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-getty-images","12":"tag-keir-starmer","13":"tag-mark-rutte","14":"tag-mr-trump","15":"tag-russia","16":"tag-security-guarantees","17":"tag-ukraine","18":"tag-volodymyr-zelensky"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115705894205569331","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}