News
Published January 15, 2024, 1:14 PM ET
Europe is preparing for Russian President Vladimir Putin to expand his country's war in Ukraine and attack NATO allies next year, according to leaked documents published in the German newspaper BILD.
According to the medium that received the military intelligence from the German Defense Ministry, the country's armed forces are preparing for a “hybrid” Russian attack in Eastern Europe.
The newspaper explained how several potential alarm scenarios could develop in the coming months.
Such a scenario, called “Alliance Defense 2025,” would begin in February and Russia would mobilize an additional 200,000 troops.
Encouraged by Western financial support for drying up Ukraine, Russia would then launch a massive “spring offensive” against Ukrainian forces.
The possible scenario outlines how Russia could launch a war in the Baltics with “severe cyberattacks” starting in July while stoking discontent among Russian nationals in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
By September, according to the secret documents, these clashes could be used by Russia as an impetus for the implementation of “Zapad 2024,” a large-scale military exercise that would deploy about 50,000 Russian soldiers in the west of the country and Belarus.
Russian President Vladimir Putin may be preparing to attack NATO allies next year, according to leaked German Defense Ministry documents outlining several scenarios. Getty Images
From there, the scenario describes, Russia could move troops and intermediate-range missiles to Kaliningrad, an 86-square-mile Russian territory between Lithuania and Poland, both of which are NATO members.
According to the documents, Russia could bombard the region with propaganda warning of an impending attack by NATO forces, with the ultimate goal of capturing an area called the Suwalki Gap, a narrow Polish-Lithuanian corridor lying between Belarus and Kaliningrad.
By December, the plot goes – a worst-case scenario exercise – Russia could then use the transition period after the US presidential election and use propaganda by declaring fictitious “border conflicts” or “unrest with numerous deaths” to foment violence in the Suwalki Gap area and sow unrest, BILD reports.
According to the documents, a key part of the plan could be to use Ukraine's wavering Western support to launch a massive “spring offensive” in the country. POOL/AFP via Getty Images
After a UN Security Council meeting in January 2025, Russia could then falsely accuse Western allies of plotting against Putin's regime, which Russia could then use to mass troops into Belarus and the Baltics by March 2025.
According to the leaked document, in this scenario, 30,000 German troops would be deployed for defense, while an estimated 70,000 Russian troops would be stationed in Belarus. By May 2025, this buildup could prompt NATO to take “credible deterrence measures” to prevent another Russian invasion, which translates to a fight between Western troops and Russian forces.
Putin and Russian officials have repeatedly denied that they would escalate the Ukraine conflict beyond the country's borders. While the plans available to BILD are a possible scenario prepared by Bundeswehr generals, European allies are taking the threat from Russia seriously and are preparing accordingly.
An estimated half a million Ukrainian and Russian soldiers were killed or injured in Russia's recent war with Ukraine, which began in February 2022. Portal
Last week, Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin, invited by NATO, said at a conference on “People and Defense” that war in Sweden was possible. The country's military commander-in-chief, Micael Bydén, immediately echoed this opinion, saying: “We must prepare as much as possible at all levels and throughout society,” CNBC wrote.
Officials at the Federal Ministry of Defense did not want to go into specific scenarios set out in the document, but told BILD: “I can tell you that considering different scenarios, even if they are extremely unlikely, is part of everyday military life, especially in the Education.”
Load More…
{{#isDisplay}} {{/isDisplay}}{{#isAniviewVideo}} {{/isAniviewVideo}}{{#isSRVideo}} {{/isSRVideo}}
https://nypost.com/2024/01/15/news/Germany-preparing-for-russia-to-start-world-war-3/?utm_source=url_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons
Copy the URL to share