Russian forces are in an increasingly difficult situation in Ukraine and will "have to focus" on using old tanks and large waves of conscripts, a top NATO admiral said on Wednesday.
"The Russians are now starting to use very old materiel," Admiral Rob Bauer said. "The T-54 tanks that we now see in the battlefield, the 54 is actually related to the year of design, 1954," he added.
The chairman of NATO's military committee was speaking in Brussels at the end of a meeting of the alliance's chiefs of defence where top military officials discussed new regional defence plans.
These plans were developed to better defend the alliance's territory in the event of an attack by Russia or terrorist groups, and foresee an increase in high-readiness troops.
Questions hang over alliance members' commitment to defence investment linked to the plans, but NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe (SACEUR), Christopher Cavoli, played down concerns.
NATO has for the first time in more than 30 years "an objective, plans-based statement of requirements," he said. "That's a real advantage for all nations in the alliance," the US army general added.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that he expected the alliance's heads of state and government to support the new defence plans at a summit in July and agree on expanding the production of defence equipment.
"We are moving in the right direction, but not as fast as the dangerous world we live in demands," Stoltenberg said.
Earlier Bauer praised Ukraine's defence against the Russian invasion and underlined the toll the war was taken on the Kremlin's armed forces.
"Russia is in the 15th month of what they thought would be a three-day war," he said.
"Goliath is wavering. And that is because David has shown immense resilience and tactical brilliance supported by 50 nations around the world," Bauer added.
Bauer was alluding to the Bible story of David and Goliath, in which the young shepherd David kills the fearsome giant Goliath with a slingshot.
For Germany, General Carsten Breuer attended the military committee for the first time after taking over the position as the highest-ranking soldier in the Bundeswehr in March.
