NATO Forces Would Destroy ‘Anything and Everything’ If Adversary Attacks, Top Military Commander Says

U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich, commander of the United States European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe, speaks at the Warsaw Security Forum in Warsaw, Poland, on Oct. 12, 2026. Attila Husejnow/AP Photo

NATO’s top military commander has said that if an adversary were to attack allied territory, his forces would respond by destroying “anything and everything” that supports or controls that force.

In his speech at the Warsaw Security Forum (WSF) on Monday, U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich did not mention Russia by name, but the warning comes at a time of rising tensions between European allies and Moscow.

​Grynkewich, who is also the commander of U.S. European Command (EUCOM), said that while NATO is a defensive alliance constructed to preserve peace, “no one should mistake [its] defensive nature for weakness or lack of resolve.”

“If someone is foolish enough to attack us, we will fight. We will stop the attack and deny them the ability to achieve their objectives, whatever those may be,” he said.

“We will, in short, ensure any attack against any ally proves utterly futile.”

The NATO commander made clear that, should an adversary launch a military attack, an allied response would, if necessary, involve a kinetic response to “break the warfighting system engaged against” the bloc.

“This includes not just the attacking force itself, but anything and everything that supports, sustains, or controls that force,” he said.

Grynkewich, however, stressed that he did not assess the conflict as either imminent or inevitable, saying that confrontations are avoided by the alliance articulating its defensive intentions and keeping lines of dialogue open to avoid misunderstandings.

The remarks follow similar comments from Sunday, when he told Polish broadcaster TVP World that the likelihood of Russia launching a full-scale attack on the alliance’s eastern flank is low.

Theory of Victory

Grynkewich’s focus during the security conference in Warsaw was to make public NATO’s “Theory of Victory”—the defensive alliance’s protocols for responding to an attack on the bloc—to assuage any security concerns that citizens of alliance member-states may have.

“The theory posits the conduct of a denial defense, an approach tightly aligned with the alliance’s strategy,” NATO’s top commander said. “What we call deterrence and defense of the Euro-Atlantic area, or DDA.”

Grynkewich said that under those operations, NATO is not seeking to impose a strategic defeat on an adversary, nor does it need to.

The Theory of Victory, he said, involves breaking the adversary’s warfighting system to the point that it can no longer perform its aggressor function and that the bloc has “no incentive to escalate.”

Air Force Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich, commander of the United States European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe, speaks at the Warsaw Security Forum in Warsaw, Poland, on Oct. 12, 2026. Attila Husejnow/AP Photo

Grynkewich said that NATO has been working on the Theory of Victory for some time and it was finalized three months ago.

In the latest incident of heightened tensions between Russia and NATO, Moscow had initially warned the Western defense alliance that it would be ready to resort to the use of nuclear weapons if NATO tried to attack or cut off the strategic region.

Moscow later toned down its rhetoric, saying Russia has no plans to use nuclear weapons against Europe.