Europe Given Ominous War Warning

The threat posed by Russia to security in Europe means that the continent must boost its defense capabilities, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel has said.

In an op-ed published in European newspapers, the top EU official, said that two years into Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, U.S. support for the continent could no longer be taken for granted.

"We can no longer count on others or be at the mercy of election cycles in the U.S. or elsewhere," he wrote, referring to further military assistance for Kyiv that is being held up in the U.S. Congress.

"If we do not get the EU's response right and do not give Ukraine enough support to stop Russia, we are next," he added. "If we want peace, we must prepare for war."

He said the day Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine the entire post-World War II security arrangement changed forever and, as such, "the EU also has to change fast with it."

"It is now clear that Russia will not stop in Ukraine, just as it did not stop in Crimea ten years ago," he said as he noted that Moscow was "destabilizing" other areas such as Moldova, Georgia, the South Caucasus, the Western Balkans and Africa.

Western leaders have warned that Putin will set his sights beyond Ukraine. Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, the chair of the NATO military committee, said in January that members needed to prepare for a war with Moscow in the next 20 years.

U.S. President Joe Biden warned in December that Putin would attack NATO after Ukraine. Military chiefs, as well as the defense ministers of several NATO members—including the U.K., Denmark and Poland—have also warned about the likelihood of a war between Russia and the alliance.

Following Russia's election, in which Putin claimed to have won over 87 percent of the vote, he said of war with the West, "everything is possible in the modern world," adding that this "will be one step away from a full-scale third world war."

Michel said that if the EU did not get its response to Russian aggression right, "we are next."

"We must therefore be defense-ready and shift to a 'war economy' mode," he said.

The former Belgian prime minister also noted that while Europe's defense industry had increased production by 50 percent since the start of the Ukraine war, the EU has not spent enough on security and defense "for decades."

The EU still spends on average less than the NATO goal of two percent of GDP, while Russia's defense budget this year will be a reported six percent.

We face the biggest security challenge since the Second World War, we must therefore build our defense readiness," Michel said.

He said profits from Russia's frozen assets and more of the European budget should be used to buy military equipment for Ukraine. Issuing European defense bonds was one way that could make it easier for industry to fund defense production, he added.

Roger Hilton, defense fellow at the Slovakia-based think tank GLOBSEC, said that productions line across Europe are awakening from a period of peacetime production and it will take time to scale up infrastructure, personnel recruitment and training.

"Setting the appropriate expectations is essential at this early stage of European industrial transition," Hilton told Newsweek. "The EU remains at an early stage of comprehensively tackling Russian aggression, both when it comes to Moscow's hard power projection and grey zone tactics, but it is making strides to respond to this multifaceted threat."

On Monday, EU foreign ministers agreed to allocate an additional 5 billion euros ($5.5 billion) in defense assistance for Ukraine for this year within the framework of the European Peace Facility, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced.

Update 3/19/24, 9:30 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Roger Hilton.