A Dutch army chief has told his army they must prepare for war as “Russia is getting stronger” and has warned his counterparts they need to get ready.
Lieutenant General Martin Wijnen told the EU that they need to prepare the Netherlands for war against Vladimir Putin and his forces.
He then warned that the Netherlands should be “afraid of war” and must prepare as Russian forces are just 1,500 kilometers away.
Lieutenant General Martin Wijnen spoke to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, he warned, “The Netherlands should be seriously afraid of war, and our society should prepare for it… Russia is getting stronger.”
Read more on Russia-Ukraine war:
Putin warned British troops are locked and loaded and ‘ready to take the lead’ to defend NATO against Russia
Russia’s losses are ‘enormous’ and Putin’s army will ’emerge from this war weakened’
Russia fires 158 air attack weapons across Ukraine and Zelensky warns they will ‘respond’
Explosions rock Ukraine with ‘biggest attack to date’ as ‘18 strategic bombers launch dozens’ of missiles
He added, “The Netherlands should not think our safety is guaranteed because we are 1,500 kilometers away [from Russians].”
The Netherlands used to have a conscription programme for all men over the age of 18, but in 1997 they scrapped the system, Lt Gen Wijnen is hoping that the government will reintroduce the mandatory enlistment.
Lt Gen Wijnen told the Dutch publication, “There is only one language that Russia understands, and that is one of a strong military.
“The Netherlands must learn again that all members of society must be ready when things go wrong.”
According to a review conducted by the US think tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), America has a far higher stake in Russia’s war on in Ukraine.
The ISW has warned that a victory by Vladimir Putin to take all of Ukraine is not impossible should the US Congress continue to cut military aid packages to Kyiv and if Europe were to follow.
The ISW report states, “A Russian conquest of all of Ukraine is by no means impossible if the United States cuts off all military assistance and Europe follows suit.
“Such an outcome would bring a battered but triumphant Russian army right up to NATO’s border from the Black Sea to the Arctic Ocean.
“The Ukrainian military with Western support has destroyed nearly 90% of the Russian army that invaded in February 2022 according to US intelligence sources, but the Russians have replaced those manpower losses and are ramping up their industrial base to make good their material losses at a rate much faster than their pre-war capacity had permitted.”
The analysis continues, “The Russian economy will gradually recover as sanctions inevitably erode and Moscow develops ways to circumvent or mitigate those that remain.
“Over time it will replace its equipment and rebuild its coherence, drawing on a wealth of hard-won experience fighting mechanized warfare. It will bring with it advanced air defence systems that only American stealth aircraft—badly needed to deter and confront China—can reliably penetrate.
“Russia can pose a major conventional military threat to NATO for the first time since the 1990s in a timeframe set to a considerable extent by how much the Kremlin invests in its military.
“Since Moscow has already committed to an ambitious post-war military expansion program the US cannot be confident that the timeframe will be very long,”
However, the analyst’s insist that the overall military potential of the US and NATO allies is far greater combined that Russia, the West could have the ability to defeat Putin’s army even if Belarus joined any future conflict.
The report adds, “But as Americans consider the costs of continuing to help Ukraine fight the Russians in the coming years, they deserve a careful consideration of the costs of allowing Russia to win.
“Those costs are much higher than most people imagine.”
Leave a Comment