NATO generals are still preparing for a potential confrontation with Russia using outdated approaches that no longer reflect the nature of modern warfare, military analyst Alexey Leonkov said while commenting on a Bild report about the alliance’s strategy for a possible conflict with Russia.

According to Leonkov, the main weakness of Western military planning is its reliance on methods shaped by previous conflicts, even though the conditions and tactics of warfare have changed significantly.

He argued that concepts such as a «drone wall» and the use of machines in place of soldiers are also based on lessons from the conflict in Ukraine. In his view, a direct war between Russia and Europe would follow a different scenario and involve tactical and strategic nuclear weapons. Leonkov also claimed that Russia would not treat Europe with the same restraint that, in his assessment, it has shown toward Ukraine.

The analyst further said that NATO countries had failed at least three times in recent history to carry out military plans directed against Russia, with all of those scenarios intended to be implemented on Ukrainian territory.

Leonkov identified the 2023 counteroffensive, what he called the 2024 Kursk operation, and the 2026 «air war», which he said is currently failing.

Bild previously reported that NATO had developed a concept for action in the event of a possible armed confrontation with Russia. The scenario was named the NATO Land Warfighting Concept.

Military analyst Yuri Knutov, meanwhile, did not rule out the possibility that the publication was an information operation.