BRUSSELS (AP) 鈥 NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned on Thursday that a Russian victory over Ukraine would undermine the dissuasive force of the world鈥檚 biggest military alliance and that its credibility could cost trillions to restore.
NATO has been ramping up its forces along its eastern flank with Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, deploying thousands of troops and equipment to from expanding its war into the territory of any of the organization鈥檚 32 member countries.
鈥淚f Ukraine loses then to restore the deterrence of the rest of NATO again, it will be a much, much higher price than what we are contemplating at this moment in terms of ramping up our spending and ramping up our industrial production,鈥 Rutte said.
鈥淚t will not be billions extra; it will be trillions extra,鈥 he said, on the sidelines of the in Davos, Switzerland.
Rutte insisted that Ukraine鈥檚 Western backers must 鈥渟tep up and not scale back the support鈥 they are providing to the country, almost three years after Russia鈥檚 full-fledged invasion began.
鈥淲e have to change the trajectory of the war,鈥 Rutte said, adding that the West 鈥渃annot allow in the 21st century that one country invades another country and tries to colonize it."
"We are beyond those days,鈥 he said.
Anxiety in Europe is mounting that U.S. President Donald Trump might seek to quickly end the war in talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on terms that are unfavorable to Ukraine, but Rutte appeared wary about trying to do things in a hurry.
鈥淚f we got a bad deal, it would only mean that we will see the president of Russia high-fiving with the leaders from North Korea, Iran and China and we cannot accept that,鈥 the former Dutch prime minister said. 鈥淭hat would be geopolitically a big, big mistake.鈥
Trump鈥檚 new envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, criticized allies who talk of continuing the war but still won鈥檛 increase their defense spending to NATO guidelines. He said Americans think it is 鈥渙utrageous鈥 that the Biden administration refused to talk to Putin.
NATO leaders have agreed that each member country should spend at least 2% of gross domestic product on their military budgets. The alliance estimates that will reach that level this year, although almost a third will still fall short. Poland and Estonia spend most in GDP terms.
鈥淵ou cannot ask the American people to expand the umbrella of NATO when the current members aren鈥檛 paying their fair share,鈥 said. The United States spends most within NATO on its own budget, in dollar terms, and allies rely on its military might for their defense.
鈥淲hen we have leaders who are going to talk about more war, we need to make sure that those leaders are spending the right amount of money,鈥 Grenell said. 鈥淲e need to be able to avoid war, and that means a credible threat from NATO.鈥
He also insisted that former President Joe Biden was wrong not to talk to Putin, who was for war crimes in 2023 by the International Criminal Court for the 鈥渦nlawful deportation鈥 of children from Ukraine to Russia.
鈥淵ou should be able to talk to people," Grenell said. "Talking is a tactic, and you鈥檙e not going to be able to solve problems peacefully unless you actually have conversations,鈥 he said.
Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski welcomed Trump's acknowledgement that it must be Russia which should make the first peace moves, but he cautioned that 鈥渢his is not the Putin that President Trump knew in his first term.鈥
On Wednesday, Trump threatened to impose stiff taxes, tariffs and sanctions on Moscow if an agreement isn鈥檛 reached to end the war, but that warning will probably fall on deaf ears in the Kremlin. Russia's economy is already weighed down by .
Sikorksi warned that Putin should not be put at the center of the world stage over Ukraine.
鈥淭he president of the United States is the leader of the free world. Vladimir Putin is an outcast and an indicted war criminal for stealing Ukrainian children,鈥 Sikorski said.
"I would suggest that Putin has to earn the summit, that if he gets it early, it elevates him beyond his, significance and gives him the wrong idea about the trajectory of this,鈥 he said.
