Berlin – Major General Christian Freuding has warned that Russia is continuing to rearm its troops beyond what is needed in Ukraine. ‘We are observing that the Russian armed forces are not only able to compensate for their enormous personnel and material losses on their own and with the support of their partners, but that they are successfully rearming,’ he told Welt am Sonntag.
An attack by Moscow on the NATO member states is by no means a foregone conclusion in the coming years, ‘but Moscow is clearly creating the conditions for it’. The Russian army has more tanks, more ammunition, more missiles and more drones every month. ‘Production is growing, the stocks in the depots are growing,’ emphasised Freuding.
Strack-Zimmermann sees ‘huge threat’
FDP defence politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann spoke of a ‘huge threat’ to Germany and Europe. ‘Russia has an impressive troop strength and a wide range of highly effective equipment,’ she told the newspaper. Moscow had been able to do this despite Western sanctions. At the same time, she emphasised that quality problems and dependence on foreign technologies were limiting Russian success.
CDU foreign policy expert Roderich Kiesewetter sees hybrid Russian attacks as a ‘preliminary stage of war’. These also include espionage activities and massive attacks in the information space, Kiesewetter told Welt am Sonntag.
Nato had recently strengthened its defences against sabotage and cyber attacks with Russia and China in mind. In recent weeks, suspected acts of sabotage by the so-called Russian shadow fleet on cables and pipelines in the Baltic Sea have also caused a stir. Russia has been waging a war of aggression against Ukraine for almost three years.
