Russia 'On Course' for NATO Conflict, Commander Says

A full-blown NATO war with Russia is the West's "worst-case scenario" but is possible, according to the commander of the Czech Republic's armed forces, as the gulf between the Western world and Moscow grows wider amid the Kremlin's war on Ukraine.

General Karel Rehka, the chief of the general staff of the Czech armed forces, said at a conference in the Czech parliament on Monday that NATO militaries must undertake the "essential" task of preparing for direct conflict with Moscow, according to Czech news service iROZHLAS.

"We view war between Russia and the North Atlantic Alliance as the worst-case scenario, but it is not impossible," Rehka said. "It is possible." Russia, the commander added, "is currently on a course towards a conflict with the Alliance."

Rehka later told Seznam Zprávy: "I definitely don't want a war," describing the possibility of a conflict with Russia as "the blackest scenario."

"No one wants it at all, but it is not impossible," he added. "It is necessary to stop saying that this is not possible, because it is simply possible. It can happen and it is necessary to prepare for it in the long run."

"But that doesn't mean that Russia wants it or that it plans it," Rehka said. "Certainly not now, just like we don't want it. Everyone knows it would be a tragedy."

NATO deterrence, he added, is the solution to show Moscow that "it's not worth it because it just can't succeed" in defeating its Western rivals through military means.

Moscow has framed its disastrous invasion of Ukraine as a pre-emptive strike against NATO, which it has long accused of fomenting "Russophobia" in the country, even while the Kremlin meddled in Ukrainian domestic politics, annexed Crimea, and seized swathes of the eastern Donbas region.

Kremlin officials have claimed that NATO was preparing Ukraine as a launchpad for aggression against Russia, though in fact the alliance has repeatedly refused to admit the country despite Kyiv's long-held accession ambitions. Meanwhile, repeated Russian aggression has helped push Ukrainian popular support for NATO membership to record highs.

In his February state-of-the-nation address, President Vladimir Putin railed against the West. "The people of Ukraine have become the hostage of the Kyiv regime and its Western overlords, who have effectively occupied this country in the political, military and economic sense," Putin said.

"They intend to transform a local conflict into a phase of global confrontation," he added, referring to the dispute over the Donbas which Russia and its local proxies ignited in 2014. "This is exactly how we understand it all, and we will react accordingly because in this case, we are talking about the existence of our country."

"The Western elite does not conceal their goal, which is to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia," the president said. "It means to finish us forever."

There appears no hope of détente. Pavel Luzin, a Russian political analyst and visiting scholar at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, told Newsweek: "Dialogue is not only hardly possible, but any dialogue with Moscow today would be a strategic mistake."

"Yes, the West must be ready for the direct clash with Russia and must be ready to defeat Russia, including Russia's nuclear disarmament by force," Luzin added.

The alliance is investing heavily in Ukrainian victory. Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and almost every NATO national leader—bar Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan—has repeatedly stressed the intention to back Kyiv in the long term, though the alliance has also been criticized for the long consensus-building process around providing advanced weapons like long-range missiles, tanks, and fighter aircraft.

The threat posed by Putin's revanchist Russia has galvanized NATO while exposing how unprepared the alliance is for major combat operations. Many allied nations are now looking to increase military spending, secure new capabilities, expand vital military stocks including of ammunition, and establish a more robust multinational footprint along Russia's frontiers.

Moscow sees NATO backing for Ukraine as a direct attack on Russia, and has repeatedly warned of consequences for alliance countries for their continued and expanded military aid.

This month, for example, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said the potential NATO decision to send American-made F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv "carries enormous risks."

And in January, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the NATO decision to send modern main battle tanks to Ukraine "will mean bringing the conflict to a whole new level which, of course, will not bode well from the point of view of global and pan-European security."

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Foreign Ministry by email to request comment.