Russia is likely to test NATO’s collective defense pledge very soon, Sweden’s top military official said, as Moscow escalates its campaign of hybrid attacks against Europe.
“I’m sure and I’m convinced that they would be ready to test Article 5 of NATO at any point in the Baltic states or in some other part of Europe as well,” Swedish Chief of Defense Gen. Michael Claesson told POLITICO, referring to the alliance’s common defense provision.
“They are prepared to take enormous strategic risks to gain whatever they see possible to gain,” he added, pointing to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s past military campaigns. “We have seen it since Chechnya, we have seen it in Georgia, we have seen it in Crimea.”
European countries are hardly helpless without the US. Also, western armies do not fight meat grinder/trench warfare tactics like the Russians, they fight with air supremacy.