Romania on Thursday joined the growing list of NATO countries who's had a prominent official warn about the potential of going to war with Russia.
General Gheorghiță Vlad, Romania's chief of defense, said during an interview with Europa Liberă România—a news service from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty—that his country currently isn't prepared for the prospect of war with Russia and warned it needs to take such a threat seriously.
Vlad's warning follows remarks made last week by General Patrick Sanders, the United Kingdom's army chief, in which he called on British authorities to prepare for a mass mobilization due to the possibility of Russia's current conflict in Ukraine spilling over into other countries.
Before Sanders made his comments, Germany's Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in an interview published on January 19 that a Russian attack on NATO could possibly occur within the next "five to eight years," while Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer said last month that NATO needed to be on combat-ready footing.
"The Russian Federation has become a problem for world order, for democracy," Vlad said to Europa Liberă România. "In fact, it is a Russian war with the democratic world. This is not a war with Ukraine."
Newsweek reached out to the Romanian and Russian ministries of defense via email on Thursday night for comment.
Of the possibility of Russian President Vladimir Putin going to war elsewhere, Vlad said the "population of Romania, like the entire population of the European Union, of Europe, must be concerned."
"If he [Putin] wins in Ukraine, the main target will be the Republic of Moldova. We will witness tensions in the Western Balkans," he continued. "I am more than convinced that President Putin's policy will escalate in the near future."
Speaking about debris from a Russian drone that fell in Romania in September, Vlad claimed his country "had no combat systems" and said legal reforms should be enacted for Romania to better thwart drone attacks.
Vlad cited the lack of compulsory military service in his country as a reason for it not being combat-ready and suggested introducing voluntary basic military training for men and women up to 35 years old.
The Romanian general also urged NATO countries to consider starting voluntary military service, as well as called on NATO allies to build up their stockpiles of weapons.
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov earlier this week called NATO a "threat" to Russia before suggesting there could be a response to recent actions taken by the alliance.
His comments came when he was asked about the NATO military exercise "Steadfast Defender 2024." The alliance operation, which launched last week, involves around 90,000 service members from 31 NATO allies and Sweden.
"Of course, it [NATO] is a threat to us. That is how we treat it, and we are constantly taking appropriate measures to deal with it," Peskov said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
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Jon Jackson is an Associate Editor at Newsweek based in New York. His focus is on reporting on the Ukraine ... Read more
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