The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is increasing the number of its NATO Response Force troops at high readiness from 40,000 to "well over 300,000", according to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday.
NATO now says that Russia has walked away from dialogue, and has now become a direct threat, choosing "confrontation instead of dialogue".
"Russia has walked away from the partnership and the dialogue that NATO has tried to establish with Russia for many years," he stated. "They have chosen confrontation instead of dialogue. We regret that - but of course, then we need to respond to that reality".
"I expect the allies will state clearly that Russia poses a direct threat to our security, to our values, to the rules-based international order," Stoltenberg said. "Together, this constitutes the biggest overhaul of our collective deterrence and defense since the Cold War".