The West is increasingly preparing for a major war on European soil amid increasing aggression from Russia and its anti-NATO allies.

Vladimir Putin continues to pursue his military goals after more than three years of intense conflict, showing no intentions to back down. This has fueled concerns that his ambitions might extend past Ukraine.

In Beijing, China’s Xi Jinping has formed what experts are calling an ‘Axis of Upheaval.’ This strategic gathering includes Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un at a landmark summit featuring over 20 countries outside the Western sphere, with the aim to challenge Donald Trump.

Observers are watching to see if this group will decide to strengthen their defense ties, which would be a significant setback for the U.S. President, who has recently claimed to have strong peacemaking abilities.

But despite the summits in Alaska and the White House, no diplomatic resolution has yet been brokered to end the three and a half year conflict. 

This summer, Putin’s aggressive actions resulted in significant territorial advances in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has remarked that Putin’s continued attacks on civilians indicate a definitive lack of interest in pursuing peace.

Meanwhile, European countries are bracing themselves for the potential outbreak of World War III. 

If NATO were provoked, they could easily outnumber the individual military forces of Russia, China, or North Korea. However, together, these nations form a significant challenge to Western powers, as depicted in the graphic below.

After three and a half years of devastating conflict, Vladimir Putin is showing no signs of relenting on his military ambitions

Despite the U.S. President’s diplomatic maneuvers in Alaska and later meetings in the Oval Office, no peaceful resolution has yet been achieved to end the enduring conflict of over three years.

Going by the numbers, NATO’s collective military is by far the world’s most powerful fighting force. 

The alliance’s 32 countries have over three million active personnel, around three million reserve personnel and 180 million men who are fit for service

Besides manpower, NATO countries also have over 14,000 tanks in their arsenals, over 3,000 fighter aircraft and nearly 1,500 attack helicopters.

Three nuclear-armed nations are also members: the U.S., the UK and France. This means the combined nuclear arsenal of NATO is more than 4,200 warheads. 

But these impressive figures pale in comparison to the collective manpower of China, Russia and North Korea, which together pose an extreme threat to the West.

Compared to NATO’s three million military personnel, Xi, Kim and Putin boast nearly five million. The alliance has a million more soldiers in reserves than their Western counterparts, and almost 700 million men fit for service. They also have almost three thousand more tanks and significantly more fleet strength.

While NATO still comes out on top when it comes to submarines, aircraft carriers, fighter aircraft and attack helicopters, the combined nuclear capacity of North Korea, China and Russia poses the most significant threat.

Individually, China has 600 warheads, North Korea 50, and Russia 5,459. The combined arsenal of over 6,000 outnumbers NATO’s 4,200. 

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky has said the Russian leader’s continued attacks on civilians display a clear uninterest in pursuing peace 

Russian road-launched nuclear missiles are paraded through the streets of Moscow during May 9 Victory Day parade in 2022, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two

Russia test-launches one of its new Sarmat nuclear missiles, which it claims can carry up to 15 warheads, strike any country on earth, and cannot be stopped by current defences

Russian President Vladimir Putin (2-L) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attend an official welcoming ceremony at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China, 01 September 2025

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Sarmat production facilities in Krasnoyarsk region

The Federal Guard Service of the Russian Federation performs during the international military music festival on Red Square in Moscow, Russia, August 31, 2025

Latvia’s intelligence agency has previously sounded the alarm that Russian security services are developing their capabilities to ‘organise sabotage in Europe’ in preparation ‘for a possible military confrontation with NATO in the long term’.

And should a peace deal be reached that ‘freezes’ the conflict in Ukraine along existing battle lines, Moscow ‘would be able to increase its military presence next to NATO’s north-eastern flank, including the Baltics within the next five years’, the report claimed.

France’s ministry of health has told its health bodies to expect for a ‘major engagement’ by March 2026. The government anticipates ‘taking care of a potentially high influx of victims from abroad’, and is asking its hospitals to prepare for a potential flood of military patients seeking treatment.

Germany too is on high alert. The nation announced plans to buy more than €350billion (£304billion) worth of arms before the end of 2041, including €70.3billion for munitions, €52.5billion for combat vehicles and €36.6billion for naval vessels and equipment.

And as Russia prepares to conduct its military training in Belarus with the Zapad 2025 exercise, Germany’s Chief of Defence Carsten Breuer said the country was staying vigilant.

‘We will be on our guard, not just the German forces, but NATO,’ he said. 

The general has warned that NATO should be equipped for a Russian attack in the next four years – a sentiment shared by Denmark, which predicted that the Russian leader may want to ‘test’ the bloc’s Article 5 commitment of mutual defence.

NATO chief Mark Rutte sounded the alarm in July about a major conflict that he anticipates would be started by simultaneous invasions from Xi and Putin.

He claimed that combined attacks from the Russian and Chinese leaders would trigger a World War nightmare and bring the planet to the brink of Armageddon. 

According to the NATO chief, China would start by seeking to grab Taiwan – while ensuring the Kremlin dictator simultaneously attacks NATO territory, amid fears Putin is anyway eyeing the Baltic republics Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, formerly part of the USSR.

Female soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army shout as they practice for an upcoming military parade to mark the 80th Anniversary of the end of World War II and Japan’s surrender, at a military base on August 20, 2025 in Beijing, China

Soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China attend a training ahead of a military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two, in Beijing, China, August 20, 2025

The parade will be held on September 3rd, and marks what is known in China as the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War

Russian (L) and Chinese national flags flutter during a welcome ceremony for Russian President Vladimir Putin (not pictured) upon his arrival at the Binhai International Airport in Tianjin, China, 31 August 2025

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un poses for a photo with troops during a visit to a special operation training base on August 28, 2025

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects a missile research institute on September 1, 2025

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un looks on as a rocket carrying a spy satellite Malligyong-1 is launched in North Gyeongsang Province, North Korea on November 21 2023

A photo released by the official North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on 15 January 2024 shows a test fire of an intermediate-range solid-fuel ballistic missile

Western intelligence believes North Korea sent around 10,000 troops to fight Putin’s war in Ukraine. In exchange, Moscow is helping with missile-related and space technology

Kim Jon Un’s (pictured) nation currently has an arsenal of about 50 nuclear warheads

The DPRK Missile Administration conducting a test launch of “Pyoljji-1-2” new-type anti-aircraft missiles in the West Sea of Korea

Russian troops walk at a destroyed part of the Illich Iron & Steel Works Metallurgical Plant in Mariupol, in territory under the government of the Donetsk People’s Republic, eastern Ukraine

This photo taken on January 4, 2021 shows Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers assembling during military training at Pamir Mountains in Kashgar, northwestern China’s Xinjiang region

Meanwhile, China boosted its defence spending by 7.2 per cent amid the tariff war with Trump earlier this year, after threatening America that it would be ready for ‘any war’. ‘China will fight to the end,’ the foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said.

Earlier this year, Russia was accused of increasing its use of prohibited chemical weapons as part of its onslaught on Ukraine – including the deployment of the WWI-era poison gas chloropicrin.

Russian soldiers use chloropicrin and riot control agent CS against sheltering Ukrainian soldiers, forcing them out into the open where they are more easily struck down, according to findings by the Netherlands’ military intelligence and security services. 

In August, Putin dramatically pulled out of a Cold War-era treaty prohibiting short and medium-range nuclear missiles while warning the West to ‘expect further steps’ as tensions spiral.

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, signed in 1987 by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, eliminated an entire class of ground-launched missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500km.

In 2019, America pulled out, accusing Russia of breaching its terms – an accusation Moscow furiously denied.

The collapse of the INF Treaty stoked fears of a repeat of a Cold War-era European missile crisis, when the U.S. and the Soviet Union both deployed intermediate-range missiles on the continent in the 1980s.

It comes as Russia’s missile forces chief declared that the new Oreshnik intermediate-range missile, which Russia first deployed against Ukraine in November, has a range to reach all of Europe.

According to Putin, the Oreshnik’s multiple warheads can plunge to a target at speeds up to Mach 10 and are immune to being intercepted. In fact, they are so powerful that the use of several of them in one conventional strike could be as catastrophic as a nuclear attack.

He has warned the West that Russia could deploy it against the NATO countries who allowed Ukraine to use their longer-range missiles to target Russia.

People take shelter inside a metro station while Russian strike drones fly over the city, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine September 2, 2025

Ukrainian soldiers unload ammunition during the night at their artillery position in the direction of Toretsk, Ukraine, on 31 August 2025

Ukrainian servicemen of the 13th Operational Brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard attend training, including practicing landing and loading into an American M113 armored personnel carrier at a shooting range in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, 29 August 2025

Ukrainian soldier in a shelter, at his artillery position in the direction of Toretsk, Ukraine, on 31 August 2025

Ukrainian soldiers fire the Ukrainian artillery piece ‘Bohdana’ from their artillery position in the direction of Toretsk, Ukraine, on 31 August 2025

A funeral service was held for two-year-old Angelyna Galych along with her 24-year-old mother, Nadiya, on Sunday after both were among at least 25 civilians killed when a Russian missile hit a residential building in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Thursday

A local resident carries his pet after Russian air strike that destroyed residential neighbourhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Saturday, August 30, 2025

A Russian soldier fires a 152 mm howitzer 2A65 Msta-B towards Ukrainian position in an undisclosed location in Ukraine on August 28, 2025

A soldier carries a shell to fire towards positions of Russian troops near Kostyantynivka in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Lithuania has recently revealed plans to dig a 30-mile-wide ribbon of defences on its borders with Russia and Belarus that will include minefields and bridges set to blow up in case Moscow invades.

For the past year, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, alongside Poland have been fortifying their borders, adding obstacles and redoubts to existing fences amid Russia’s mounting aggression.

When complete, the Baltic defence line is estimated to be more than 940 miles long and will limit Russia’s ability to launch attacks from its own territory, Kaliningrad and Belarus.

Without help from the U.S., Europe would need to dramatically increase its nuclear weapons stockpile by about a thousand in the face of threats from Russia, experts have warned.

Maximilian Terhalle, a former Senior Adviser for strategic affairs to Britain’s Ministry of Defence and Visiting Professor at the Grand Strategy Programme of King’s College London, told The Telegraph in March: ‘We need to be on par with Russia’s 1,550 strategic warheads.

‘Otherwise we will not strategically influence what is going on in Putin’s mind, which is critical for deterrence.’

Russia has more than 5,000 nuclear warheads at its disposal, with 1,550 strategic warheads deployed in line with the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) – though Putin suspended Moscow’s participation in 2023.

By contrast, Britain and France – the only nuclear armed powers in Europe – have a shared total of just over 500 warheads.

North Korea has an arsenal of around 50 nuclear warheads, but this may rise to around 300 over the next decade with the assistance of Russia, according to Ankit Panda, an expert on North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.