Last warning: We have two or three years to get ready

Kristoffersen's comments were the latest in a series of increasingly dire warnings from Western leaders and defense officials about the threat posed by Russia and Europe's current unpreparedness for such an attack.

"At one point someone said it would take 10 years (before Russia re-establishes its offensive capability), but I think we're back to less than 10 years because of the industrial base that exists in Russia now," Kristoffersen said.

"It will take some time, which now gives us a window of the next two to three years, to rebuild our forces, to rebuild our supplies at the same time as we support Ukraine," he added.

Unlike its Nordic neighbors Sweden and Finland, Norway has been a member of NATO since the founding of the alliance in 1949.

Norway has increased its defense spending since the start of Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine and aims to reach a threshold of 2% of GDP in 2024, with a further increase of 2.7% of GDP by 2030.

However, Kristoffersen believes that all those plans to restore the stockpiles of weapons in NATO member countries must be accelerated.

"We have to do it in two to three years to make sure we are ready for anything that might happen," he warned.