NATO: 500,000 Troops on High Readiness for War With Russia

An official with the North Atlantic alliance says the bloc has exceeded its goal of placing 300,000 soldiers on standby for a potential war with Russia. The announcement comes as NATO members significantly escalate support for Ukraine, bringing the alliance closer to direct war with Moscow.

On Thursday, a NATO official told AFP that member states have 300,000 soldiers ready to deploy for a conflict with Russia in the space of 30 days. “The offers on the table from allies comfortably exceed the 300,000 that we set,” the official said. “Those are forces which allies have said to us, ‘They are available to you as of now at that level of readiness.’”

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the number of NATO soldiers at high readiness is significantly greater than the 300,000 benchmark. “Allies are offering forces to NATO’s command at a scale not seen in decades. Today we have 500,000 troops at high readiness across all domains, significantly more than the goal that was set at the 2022 Madrid Summit,” he said on Friday.