German newspaper FAZ on September 21, 2013 (when Ukraine was still fine): "The NATO thinks about its future after the pullout from Afghanistan. [...] For some time, the NATO sees itself confronted with a question, which is anything but irrelevant for a military alliance: What to do without war? At the end of the next year the alliance wants the combat troops to be pulled out from Afghanistan, the process is in full swing. If there won't be another large scale operation, and that's probable because of the combat fatigue in the West, the alliance won't be in an armed conflict for the first time for more than 10 years. Especially military officers are concerned about this. "How to retain the operational capability when the troops are back in the barracks?", leading officers wonder. A first, to outsiders possibly suprising answer is: By fighting a battle against Russia."
This is what the FAZ wrote on September 21, 2013 about discussions of high ranked military officers of the NATO.
Edit: The author of this article, Nikolas Busse, became NATO correspondent and the deputy head of FAZ's foreign affairs after he strongly supported the US in the Iraq war in 2003. Got this info from another interview with Udo Ulfkotte.