Kateryna Chernoval18:29, 02.09.25

He also mentioned the recent incident with the plane carrying Ursula von der Leyen.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that Russia poses a threat to all European countries. He stressed that a Russian missile could reach The Hague in a matter of minutes. 

According to The Guardian , the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance made this statement at a press conference in Luxembourg, where he is on a visit. Rutte also mentioned the recent incident with the plane in which Ursula von der Leyen was flying – the GPS of the plane was jammed, and Russia is suspected of this. According to him, NATO takes this seriously and is working to counter hybrid threats. 

“I’ve always hated the word ‘hybrid’ because it sounds so nice, but hybrid is exactly that: the disruption of commercial aircraft with potentially catastrophic consequences, the attempted assassination of a major industrialist in a NATO member country, the attack on the National Health Service in the UK. These are not small, insignificant incidents. These are huge incidents with huge impact,” he said.

Speaking about increasing defense spending, Rutte said that NATO countries are not doing this for Trump, but because the threat from Russia is growing every day.

“Let’s not be naive. One day this could affect Luxembourg and my country, the Netherlands. Right now we are all safe. We think we are far from Russia, but in fact we are very close. And taking into account the latest Russian missile technologies, for example, the difference between Lithuania on the front line and Luxembourg, The Hague or Madrid is 5-10 minutes. That is how long it takes for this missile to reach these parts of Europe,” the NATO Secretary General emphasized. 

He added that all European countries are under direct threat from Russia:

“We are all on the eastern flank now, whether you live in London or Tallinn… it makes no difference.”

(C)UNIAN 2025