Putin’s war in Ukraine puts the NATO alliance and its member states “really at risk”, an official from Allied European Headquarters (SHAPE) told reporters on Wednesday, a month after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The official called Putin “reckless” and said he and his inner circle “don’t care about human life.”

“From Russia, we realized that Putin and his close circle are really reckless people. They don’t care about human life. They lied publicly to hide their military operations. Putin has completely changed his discourse towards the West, and he has a deep hatred for it. our society, our values, so we really judge that it’s dangerous, and that alliance is really risky,” the official said Wednesday.

SHAPE is the headquarters of the NATO alliance’s military operations in Europe. Located in Brussels, Belgium. Two SHAPE officials briefed reporters on NATO’s military posture and how they are responding to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The briefing comes ahead of President Joe Biden’s trip to NATO headquarters in Brussels to meet with leaders of NATO allies as the Ukraine crisis continues.

War has created a “new reality” for NATO allies, said another SHAPE official, echoing Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s words at a press conference on Wednesday.

“You just heard the Secretary General’s press conference, and he said that it is a new reality and that we must readjust our defense and deterrence posture,” said a second SHAPE official. “This is a permanent and profound change in the European security environment, and the Secretary-General has said the same.”

Officials said it was too early to predict how NATO would permanently change the posture of its military power across Europe because of Putin’s actions, but discussed how the posture has changed so far to strengthen the eastern flank, where NATO ally borders NATO’s Ukraine, and to ensure that they ready for any scenario that a war in Ukraine could bring against NATO countries.

As the NATO Response Force was activated for the first time in NATO history, the “40,000 troops” in NATO allied countries along the eastern flank are now working for the “collective security, collective defense” of all NATO countries, not just their own. . There are eight battle groups, one in each country on the eastern flank, that are part of this activation of the NATO Response Force, a second SHAPE official said.

This is a “ten-fold increase” from what happened before the invasion of Ukraine, the official added.

“At the basic level, in the ground troops, there are now 40,000 soldiers in those eight battle groups, which are in one in each country along the east side, that’s a tenfold increase from what it was before. invasion of Russia,” said a second SHAPE official.

In the air, there were “more than 100 additional aircraft,” the official said.

“We’ve always done what we call air policing,” the official said, but now, after the start of the invasion, they have eight aircraft to give the alliance “a 24/7 air presence on the east side.”

In the waters surrounding NATO allied nations, the alliance has “25 ships patrolling the waters at all times providing a 360-degree deterrent,” the official said.

“In addition, there are usually around 150 ships from NATO countries that also sail in the waters and can come and go under NATO command and control,” the official added.

While it is too early to say what the permanent changes in NATO’s military force posture will be due to Putin’s invasion, the official said the current force posture is “at least” a good “starting point”. long-term.

“We are preparing for the worst, but are doing everything possible to prevent the worst from happening,” the first official said.