Both Russia and NATO are readying for possible war with military exercises that focus on the other side's perceived weaknesses,
The U.K. Telegraph reports.
The Telegraph quotes a report by the European Leadership Network think tank.
"We do not suggest that the leadership of either side has made a decision to go to war or that a military conflict between the two is inevitable, but that the changed profile of exercises is a fact and it does play a role in sustaining the current climate of tensions in Europe," the report's authors write.
Russia held "snap exercises" in March in which 80,000 troops made long-range deployments and simulated combat that would have indicated only that the United States or NATO was the adversary, The Telegraph wrote.
NATO, meanwhile, held an exercise dubbed "Allied Shield" in June with 15,000 troops "engaged in a series of mock operations including response to a Crimea-style infiltration of irregular forces," according to the paper.
"Whilst spokespeople may maintain that these operations are targeted against only hypothetical opponents, the nature and scale of the operations indicate otherwise," according to the think tank's report.
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