LONDON

NATO secretary general on Tuesday warned of "massive build-up" of Russian military, saying it is not to organize parades but to use in Ukraine or maybe other places.

"The threat from the Russians is increasing every day. Let's not be naive about it," Mark Rutte said at a news conference with Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden and Defense Minister Yuriko Backes in the Western European country.

Rutte went on to say that maybe other allies think they are safe now just because they are far away, however, he noted that all allies are "very close by and the latest Russian missile technology."

"The difference now between Lithuania on the front line and Luxembourg, The Hague or Madrid, is five to 10 minutes - that's the time it takes this missile to reach these parts of Europe."

He added: "So we are all under direct threat from the Russians. We are all on the eastern flank now, whether you live in London or in Tallinn, it doesn't, there is no difference anymore."

The NATO chief reiterated the importance of keeping defense and deterrence strong and stressed that the military alliance needs more capabilities and larger armed forces in the whole of NATO area.

"There is a massive build-up at this moment of the Russian Armed Forces and Russian military, and not to only organize these parades in Moscow, it’s there to be used and they use it, as we speak in Ukraine, and they might use it in other places," he added. 

The NATO chief also thanked Luxembourg over its commitment to join NATO program to supply military support to Ukraine.

Under the new NATO Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative, allies are delivering essential US weapons directly to Ukraine, with funding secured from NATO Allies.

"We have in a few weeks, already been able to channel $2 billion of vital, lethal, sometimes lethal, sometimes also more defensive systems into Ukraine through this new program," he added.

- NATO 'stepping up' when it comes to hybrid, cyber threats

To a question about “GPS jamming” incident that affected a plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Bulgaria, Rutte said NATO is taking this “very seriously” and is “stepping up” its response to hybrid and cyber threats.

"I always hated the word ‘hybrid’ because it sounds so cuddly, but hybrid is exactly this: jamming commercial airplanes with potentially disastrous effects, an assassination attempt on a big industrialist in one of NATO Allied countries ... so, these are not cuddly small incidents," he added.

The incident occurred during von der Leyen's visit to Bulgaria on Sunday, as an EU Commission spokesperson said they are "well aware that threats and intimidation are a regular component of Russia's hostile actions."

However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday denied Russia’s involvement in the failure of GPS navigation systems on the plane carrying von der Leyen.