Oct. 12, 2026 – NATO’s top military commander warned Monday that an attack on the alliance would be met with a response aimed well beyond the troops at the front.

Speaking at the Warsaw Security Forum, U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, laid out what he called NATO’s “theory of victory.” He described a strategy of blocking, blunting, and breaking an attacking force, and said the response would not stop at frontline units. NATO is prepared to target “anything and everything that supports, sustains, and controls that force,” he said.

The message was widely read as a warning to Moscow. Europe has seen a run of drone incursions and suspected sabotage that officials have linked to Russia. Last month Germany for the first time formally accused Russia of attempting to attack Leipzig Airport with an explosives-laden drone. Moscow has dismissed such claims as “scare stories.”

Grynkewich said he does not consider conflict imminent or inevitable, and he stressed that NATO is a defensive alliance that does not seek war. He argued that the most effective way to keep the peace is to make clear that an attack on the alliance would fail to achieve its goals.

Sources: Bloomberg and AP reporting from the Warsaw Security Forum.