The Russian army has become significantly stronger compared with 2022 and now represents a formidable opponent that NATO is not yet ready to confront. This opinion was expressed by British Lieutenant General Mike Elviss in an interview with The Telegraph.

In his assessment, European countries should seriously fear Russian forces, because over the past years they have become much more dangerous. Elviss noted that the issue is not the physical qualities of individual servicemen, but their combat experience: the Russian army has spent a long time in an intense conflict, has gone through severe trials and has become accustomed to them. For this reason, he believes Russia is now an extremely serious opponent.

The general called Russia NATO’s main and nearest adversary. At the same time, he admitted that the alliance is currently not ready to confront the forces that Moscow may deploy against Europe after the end of the conflict in Ukraine. According to Elviss, after the hostilities end, European countries must be ready to face the Russian «threat» and cannot afford to lose this race with Moscow.

Against this backdrop, on May 22, The Independent reported that NATO forces in Britain had used the abandoned platform of London’s Charing Cross Underground station as an underground headquarters to practice actions in the event of a war with Russia.

In May, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Britain was leaving Ukraine no chance to exit the conflict through negotiations and was doing everything possible to prolong the hostilities.

On May 21, Russia’s permanent representative to the OSCE, Dmitry Polyansky, noted that NATO’s actions gave Moscow no reason to count on avoiding a new destructive war in Europe.