A senior Russian military officer has warned that the conflict in Ukraine could escalate into a full-scale war in Europe, declaring the probability of Moscow‘s forces becoming involved in a new conflict is increasing ‘significantly.’

Colonel-General Vladimir Zarudnitsky, head of the Russian army’s Military Academy of the General Staff, made the alarming comments in an article for ‘Military Thought’, a Russian defence ministry journal. 

The article will only add to fears throughout Europe that a major conflict could be on the horizon after a slew of EU leaders and defence ministers warned citizens to prepare for the prospect of war in the coming years.  

‘The possibility of an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine – from the expansion of participants in ”proxy forces” used for military confrontation with Russia to a large-scale war in Europe – cannot be ruled out,’ RIA Novosti reported Zarudnitsky as saying.

‘The main source of military threats to our state is the anti-Russian policy of the United States and its allies, who are conducting a new type of hybrid warfare in order to weaken Russia in every possible way, limit its sovereignty and destroy its territorial integrity.

‘The likelihood of our state being purposefully drawn into new military conflicts is significantly increasing,’ he concluded.

Zarudnitsky also advocated a number of changes in the way Russia organises its military and security, RIA added, including placing greater emphasis on relying on what he called friendly countries to ensure Russia’s own security and consolidating the whole of Russian society around its defence needs.

Ukrainian servicemen from air defence unit of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade fire an anti aircraft cannon at a frontline, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near the town of Bakhmut, Ukraine March 6, 2024

Civilians take part in a military training activity day conducted by the Ukrainian Volunteer Army on February 17, 2024 in Kyiv, Ukraine

British soldiers stand inside armoured vehicles as they cross the Vistula River during the DRAGON-24 NATO military defense drills on March 05, 2024

A member of Ukraine’s 72nd Brigade Anti-air unit runs to a position as they prepare to fire a Strela -10 anti-air missile system after sighting a Russian Zala reconnaissance drone over head on February 23, 2024

Colonel-General Vladimir Zarudnitsky, head of the Russian army’s Military Academy of the General Staff

Russian President Vladimir Putin sits in a cockpit of a flight simulator at the Krasnodar Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots named after Anatoly Serov in Krasnodar, Russia, Thursday, March 7, 2024

Zarudnitsky’s latest comments suggest that the Kremlin is preparing for all eventualities and believes that a wider war on the continent is an ever more likely scenario. 

The stark declaration comes at a time when the West is scrambling to help Ukraine with more arms and financing after Kyiv‘s failed counteroffensive last summer and after Russian forces regained the initiative on the battlefield.

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 saw the spectre of a major armed conflict darken Europe’s door again for the first time since the end of World War II – and triggered the deepest crisis in Russia’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

But two full years into the conflict – and with no clear end in sight – European nations are now confronting the very real possibility the war could drag on indefinitely – and perhaps spill beyond the borders of Ukraine. 

Though Kyiv says it is defending itself against an imperial-style war of conquest designed to erase its national identity, Putin has cast his decision to send tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine as a move to secure Russia’s own security against an increasingly hostile Ukrainian leadership controlled by Western powers. 

Amid this escalation of tensions, Sweden today becomes the 32nd member of NATO after the Nordic country applied to join the security bloc alongside Finland in May 2022, breaking with a two-century-long policy of non-alignment.

In an alarming speech just after New Year, the Scandinavian nation’s Civil Defence Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin said: ‘There could be war in Sweden… The world is facing a security outlook with greater risks than at any time since the end of the Second World War,’ before going on to urge his citizens to join voluntary civil defence groups. 

Days later, Estonia’s Prime Minister declared that Europe has just three to five years to prepare for Russia’s return as a serious military threat on NATO‘s eastern flank, while British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps in January declared he would send 20,000 British troops to take part in one of NATO’s largest war games since the Cold War.

‘Our adversaries are busily rebuilding their barriers, old enemies are reanimated, battle lines are being redrawn, the tanks are literally on Ukraine’s lawn and the foundations of the world order are being shaken to their core,’ Shapps declared at the time. 

But General Sir Richard Barrons warned that Britain is sorely underprepared for a conflict with Russia, and urged the government to invest heavily in reconstituting the armed forces to meet the challenge.  

‘Russia is clearly angry and rearming so their capability will be restored and when the shooting stops in Ukraine, Russia will blame the outcome on us,’ he told MailOnline. 

‘We are already In confrontation with Russia. Right now, we have chosen to do very little about it.

‘During the Cold War the Army, at all times, was ready to fight at four hours’ notice. When the Cold War ended and there was no sense of existential risk to the UK, all of that was dismantled.

‘Now we would need five to 10 years’ notice of a Russian surprise attack to manage to deal with it. It’s deeply disappointing.’

In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state owned agency Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu during a visit at the Krasnodar Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots in Krasnodar on March 7, 2024

A Ukrainian soldier is seen as Ukrainian soldiers of the 80th brigade move along the front line towards an artillery position in the direction of Bakhmut during the ongoing two-year war between Russia and Ukraine in Donbas, Ukraine on March 05, 2024

Civilians take part in a military training activity day conducted by the Ukrainian Volunteer Army on February 17, 2024 in Kyiv, Ukraine

A member of Ukraine’s 72nd Brigade Anti-air unit fires at a Russian Zala reconnaissance drone over head on February 23, 2024 near Marinka, Ukraine

View of a bridge, destroyed by the war, in Bohorodychne, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on January 27, 2024

Norwegian soldiers take part in the NATO Nordic Response military exercises outside Alta, Norway, Thursday, March 7, 2024

French soldiers drive a French Leclerc tank after crossing the Vistula River during the DRAGON-24 NATO military defense drills on March 05, 2024 in Korzeniewo, Poland

Retired US Army Brigadier General Kevin Ryan also told MailOnline that a failure to prepare on the part of NATO could incite Putin to strike. 

‘Until recently it didn’t seem Russia could build an army good enough to enforce that demand. But if Russia continues to have success enlarging its force and ramping up military production then we need to get ready. 

‘Getting ready could be enough to avert a wider war. Not getting ready could invite one,’ he concluded. 

Ben Hodges, who commanded who commanded the US Army in Europe between 2014 and 2018, added: ‘If the civilian leadership doesn’t think there’s a threat, they won’t be able to move quickly enough. 

‘Our leaders should talk to us like adults. It doesn’t mean you’re a scaremongerer, it means you’re taking precaution, which is exactly what we should be doing.’ 

In recent months, NATO and EU countries have committed to ramping up defence spending and boosting arms production to supply Ukraine with more weapons and ammunition while strengthening domestic capabilities. 

But for Kyiv, the increased production of munitions cannot come quickly enough.  

Germany declared yesterday it would back a Czech proposal to purchase sorely needed ammunition from outside the EU after the bloc fell way short of a promise made last year to deliver one million shells to Ukraine by March 2024.

Berlin would pledge a ‘three-digit million euro sum’ to the Czech initiative, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said at a press conference in the German capital.

Hebestreit did not specify where the munitions would be sourced from or give a more specific range for the funding amount.

‘We have finally managed to break the blockade so that we can also procure ammunition outside of Europe,’ he said.

The Czechs had identified hundreds of thousands of 155-millimetre ammunition and 122mm shells, which could be sent ‘within weeks’, he said.

Around 15 nations are said to support for the plan, with the Netherlands publicly pledging 100 million euros.