"When the war in Ukraine ends, Russia's army will be stronger than it is today," says NATO's Cavoli

He said this in an interview with Der Spiegel.

Cavoli noted that NATO has made significant strides in improving operational readiness, but ‘there is still a lot of work to be done’.

"The armed forces of all Allies have significantly improved their operational readiness. Over the past two years, we have taken important steps to modernize our military defense capabilities. Today, tens of thousands of troops are ready and can be deployed in just a few days if the worst were to happen. This is significant progress, but we still have a lot of work to do," he stressed.

According to him, NATO must outperform the enemy in terms of capabilities, and the speed of modernization is a crucial factor.

"We are seriously preparing for a defensive situation. How long will it take us to be ready? For a commander like me, the troops are never ready enough, we always want more. But we are working hard, we are getting better, we can already implement the defense plans we have developed to a certain level," Cavoli explained.

The general stressed that the Russian military is drawing conclusions from the war in Ukraine and improving its methods of warfare. He believes that after the war with Ukraine is over, Russia will have a stronger army.

"Russia has suffered losses in Ukraine, quite heavy losses. But the Russian armed forces are learning, improving and applying the lessons learned from the war. At the end of the war in Ukraine, no matter what it looks like, the Russian armed forces will be stronger than they are today. These forces will be on the border of our Alliance. They will be commanded by the same people who already see us as an enemy today, and who will be very angry at the way the war has gone. That is, we will have an enemy with real capabilities, mass and clear intentions. Therefore, we must be prepared and need forces that can withstand it," he concluded.

• On Friday, October 18, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that one of the goals of this year's NATO nuclear exercises is to deter Russia.