Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned that Russia has chosen the alliance as its 'next target'. Photo / Getty Images
The West faces war with Russia on a scale not seen since the days of “our grandparents and great-grandparents”, the head of Nato has warned.
Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary-general, said Vladimir Putin had chosen the alliance as his “next target”, in some of his strongest warnings yet on the prospect of war spreading across Europe.
“Conflict is at our door. Russia has brought war back to Europe, and we must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured,” Rutte said in Berlin.
“We need to be crystal clear about the threat. We are Russia’s next target, and we are already in harm’s way.”
The assessment came towards the end of a frantic week of diplomacy, as Ukraine and its European allies submitted a new peace proposal to the Trump administration that will be discussed in Paris this weekend.
Donald Trump accused European leaders of being “weak” earlier this week and has outlined plans to pivot away from traditional security alliances on the Continent.
The US President is “extremely frustrated” with both Kyiv and Moscow, Karoline Leavitt, his press spokeswoman, said on Thursday.
“He doesn’t want any more talk. He wants action. He wants this war to come to an end.”
There were reports on Thursday of tensions forming between European leaders, with Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s Prime Minister, reportedly putting pressure on Kyiv to accept “painful” concessions, apparently on Washington’s behalf.
Meanwhile, in Moscow, the Kremlin warned that it considered British soldiers operating in Ukraine as “legitimate targets”, following the death of a British paratrooper in an accident away from the front lines.
“For us, these so-called ‘peacekeepers’ will immediately become legitimate targets, everyone should understand this,” said Sergei Lavrov, Putin’s foreign minister.
Nato leaders have warned that Russia could attack a member state on its eastern flank, such as Estonia, within just a few years of the end of the current conflict in Ukraine.
Some countries, notably Poland and Germany, have introduced new military training for volunteers to improve defences. They are all also reassessing the availability of air raid shelters.
Later on Thursday, the Royal Navy disclosed it had recently tracked a Russian submarine, the Krasnodar, as it sailed from the North Sea into the English Channel. A Royal Navy Merlin helicopter and an RFA Tidesurge tanker monitored the submarine during the three-day operation.
In Berlin, Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, announced that Ukraine had offered new proposals on giving up territory to Russia in the hopes of securing a peace deal.
At a press conference with Rutte, Merz said that a new offer on land concessions had been transferred to Washington, without giving details of its contents.
“It mainly concerns the question of what territorial concessions Ukraine is prepared to make,” Merz said. He stressed that any decision on land concessions was up to the Ukrainian Government and its people.
The German Chancellor also suggested that talks would be held over the weekend between the US, European leaders and Ukraine to discuss the new proposals.
He said: “If we continue as imagined, there will be talks with the US administration over the weekend and there might be a meeting at the beginning of next week in Berlin. Whether the US administration will take part in the meeting depends on the papers we are working on [at present].”
The offer, drawn up with the support of European leaders, is a revised version of Trump’s 28-point peace plan, which heavily favoured Moscow by requiring Kyiv to give up swathes of territory and reduce the size of its army.
Some proposals suggest Ukraine could, at least partially, withdraw its armed forces from the eastern Donbas region to form a demilitarised zone – but only if Russia agrees to also pull back its own troops from the area, the Telegraph understands.
The idea has been floated among Ukrainian negotiators as they look for a compromise to the US President’s demand for Kyiv to cede Donetsk and Luhansk as part of a peace deal.
A report on Thursday said Meloni had urged Volodymyr Zelenskyy, her Ukrainian counterpart, to accept “painful concessions” for a peace deal.
According to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, tensions surfaced between the two leaders as Meloni pressed Zelenskyy to accede to US demands.
“There is sufficient evidence indicating that not everything went smoothly and that some differences were clearly expressed for the first time by both parties,” the newspaper stated.
During the Berlin press conference, Merz said it would be a mistake to force Ukrainian leaders into a peace deal their people could not accept.
“The work we are doing together remains very difficult. Putin continues to ruthlessly mount his brutal war against the civilian population. At the same time, he is playing for time.
“We want a ceasefire that is backed by robust legal and material guarantees. It would be a mistake to force the Ukrainian president into a peace that his population will not support after four years of suffering and dying.”
Merz also sought to play down reports of a rift between the US and Europe on the Ukraine peace talks and the wider issue of America’s role in defending European security interests.
“We have no reason to doubt the agreements we have made with the US within the Nato alliance,” said Merz, while Rutte also said it was clear the US remained committed to Europe.
On Thursday evening, the Kremlin announced that Putin had spoken with Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, as the latter faces intense pressure from Trump to stand down.
Putin sought to “reassure” Maduro of Russian support, as the US military builds up forces in the Caribbean and American troops seized a Venezuelan oil tanker.
In Europe, the focus will shift over the weekend to Paris, where the details of the latest peace proposal are expected to be ironed out.
Ukraine is also keen to prevent talks over territorial concessions from happening without parallel discussions on the shape of the security guarantees the US could offer to deter a future Russian invasion.
Officials close to the negotiations have described “incredible pressure” by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to agree to a unilateral withdrawal from the Donbas before any other agreements are struck.
On Thursday, Russia said it had made fresh gains on the front line in Ukraine, where Putin is taking territory slowly and at a heavy cost to his troops.
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