“Conflict is at our door. Russia has brought war back to Europe,” Mark Rutte said in Berlin.

NATO chief Mark Rutte on Thursday cautioned the alliance's European allies of a possible conflict, while urging them to step up their defence efforts and be prepared.

While flagging his concerns, Rutte warned that the NATO allies could be “Russia's next target”, Reuters news agency reported.

“Conflict is at our door. Russia has brought war back to Europe,” Rutte said in a speech in Berlin. The NATO chief said that the possible conflict could be “on the scale of war our grandparents and great-grandparents endured.”

Rutte further said that several of the allies of the military alliance did not seem to feel the urgency of the Russian threat in Europe. “I fear that too many are quietly complacent.

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