NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said he considered the sometimes harsh criticism of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to be unjustified, news wire DPA reported.

NATO head Mark Rutte warned the US-led transatlantic alliance on Thursday that it was not ready for the threats it would face from Russia in the coming years and called for a shift to a wartime mindset - with much higher defense spending.

"We’re as close as we’ve been to war with Russia since the Second World War [and] we announce a half billion cut in our conventional defence. It was the lack of conventional defence that encouraged Putin to invade Ukraine in the first place", he said.

New NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned Europe Thursday that Russia's Vladimir Putin wants to "wipe Ukraine off the map" and might come for other parts of Europe next. "It is time to shift to a wartime mindset," Rutte said at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels, in his first major speech since taking NATO's helm in October.

Nato chief Mark Rutte issued a stark warning on Dec 12 to “turbocharge” defence spending, saying European nations were not prepared for the threat of future war with Russia. “We are not ready for what is coming our way in four to five years,

Governments need to make more orders and defense contractors have to take more risks, NATO’s secretary-general said.

A MILLION people have been killed or maimed by Russia’s bloodbath war in Ukraine. Nato chief Mark Rutte said: “Every week, there are over 10,000 killed or wounded on all sides in Ukraine. “Over 1

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Thursday the alliance needs to shift to a "wartime mindset" in the face of increased aggression from Russia and new threats from China. The NATO chief called on the alliance to "turbocharge" defence production and spending during a speech at a think tank event in Brussels aimed at launching a debate on military investment.

We are not ready for what is coming our way in four to five years,” NATO chief Mark Rutte said about a war a coming war in his first major speech since taking the job. The alliance needs to “shift to a wartime mindset,

The NATO chief on Monday reaffirmed Montenegro's role within the alliance while underscoring the growing threats the country faces from Russia and other elsewhere. “Montenegro faces consistent hybrid threats from Russian and foreign actors.

"It is time to shift to a wartime mindset, and turbo-charge our defense production and defense spending," Mark Rutte said.