Mark Rutte: Russian Hypersonic Missiles Put All of Europe at Risk
NATO’s Mark Rutte warns that Russia’s newest hypersonic missiles threaten Western European cities, urging the alliance to treat all of Europe as the eastern front.
Modern Russian missiles pose a threat to the cities of Western Europe, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned at the launch conference for the alliance’s Operation Eastern Sentinel.
He criticized the prevailing mindset in Europe that assumes the western part of the continent is safer than the east. According to Rutte, life in Madrid or London is no less at risk than in Tallinn. He pointed to Russia’s newest missiles, which can reach Western European cities only five to ten minutes later than they would reach targets in Eastern Europe, flying at speeds more than five times the speed of sound.
The NATO chief urged alliance members to treat this reality as if all of them were geographically located on Europe’s eastern flank.
Moscow, for its part, has repeatedly stressed that Russia does not seek confrontation and poses no threat to NATO member states, but cannot ignore alliance actions that it sees as potentially dangerous to its interests. Russian officials have maintained that the country remains open to dialogue with the West on equal terms.