NATO leaders say NATO countries’ pledge to spend 5% of their economic output on defense is Donald Trump’s “biggest foreign policy success”.

Mark Rutte told the BBC that NATO was “stronger than ever” thanks to Donald Trump, adding that Trump was “good news for collective defence, for NATO and for Ukraine”.

The U.S. leader harshly criticized European allies for spending little on defense and even threatened to withdraw U.S. protection if they failed to do so.

NATO Chairman has Warns Russia could attack allies within next five years. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday dismissed such comments as “hysteria.”

“I have said it many times, this is a lie, nonsense, pure nonsense, about some imaginary threat from Russia to European countries,” Putin told defense officials in Moscow.

After Putin launched Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

It now occupies much of Luhansk and is understood to be demanding that Ukraine withdraw its troops from all of Donetsk, although Ukraine still controls up to 23% of the eastern region.

Putin said the goals of what he called a “special military operation” would be achieved.

He said he preferred to achieve this goal through diplomacy, before warning that “if the other side and its foreign sponsors refuse to engage in substantive discussions, Russia will achieve the liberation of its historical lands through military means”.

The Nato chief told BBC Radio 4’s PM program that it was “crazy” that Putin had pursued his “historical idea of ​​wanting to re-enter Ukraine” – or the entire territory that once comprised the former Soviet Union – resulting in the death or serious injury of 1.1 million Russian people.

Mark Rutte praised Trump’s efforts to end the war.

The U.S. envoy has been in intense talks with Ukrainian officials over Trump’s proposed peace plan, an initial draft of which is seen as favorable to Russia.

It envisions handing control of the country’s eastern territories to Russia and providing Kiev with security guarantees against future Russian aggression.

U.S. officials have said Washington is prepared to provide assurances to Ukraine that would emulate NATO’s Article 5 mutual protection clause.

European allies, who met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the German capital Berlin on Monday, said the European-led “Multinational Force for Ukraine” was also expected to “assist in the rebuilding of the Ukrainian military, secure Ukraine’s skies and support safer seas, including through operations on Ukrainian territory”.

“Russia will see that he should never try to attack Ukraine again while the security guarantees are in place because our response will be devastating, and that is what we are discussing now,” the Nato leader told the BBC.

Putin opposes any such idea.

He also warned that Russia was not seeking conflict with Europe, but was ready “now” to start a war if Europe wanted to.

In 2022, just before 200,000 Russian troops crossed the border and invaded Ukraine, Moscow made similar assurances.

For more than three years, Russia’s economy has been at war – with its factories churning out ever-increasing amounts of drones, missiles and artillery shells.

According to a recent report by the Kiel Institute for World Economics, Russia produces about 150 tanks, 550 infantry fighting vehicles, 120 Lancet drones and more than 50 artillery pieces every month.

Britain and most of its Western allies are far from that point.

Analysts say it will take years for Western European factories to catch up with Russia in mass production of weapons.

France and Germany have both recently taken steps to reinstate compulsory military service for 18-year-olds.

NATO includes 30 European countries, as well as Canada and the United States, the alliance’s most powerful military members.

Under pressure from Trump, its member states pledged at a June summit in The Hague to increase military spending to 5% of gross domestic product by 2035 – Because of the “long-term threat posed by Russia” and terrorismwait.

Mark Rutte said in an interview with the BBC: “We are stronger now, but if we do not implement the Hague decision, in a few years we will be weaker than Russia, and that is extremely dangerous.”