In an interview, the Inspector General of the Bundeswehr, Carsten Breuer, warns remarkably directly about a possible “defensive war” in Germany - FAZ

The German Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) recently spoke publicly about the need for the Bundeswehr to become “war-ready,” which earned him a lot of criticism.

Germany's highest-ranking soldier went one step further in an interview and spoke of the possibility that "we may one day have to wage a defensive war and no longer have the choice whether we want to take part in an operation far away."

Society in the Federal Republic needs to get used to this idea, explained Bundeswehr Inspector General Carsten Breuer in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).

But that's not all: Against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, the general of the German army warned urgently against Moscow's ruler Vladimir Putin.

“The fact that Russia is arming itself at the moment and how Putin is positioning himself worries me. It should concern us all, but most importantly we need to turn those concerns into action now. “We have to become aware of how we can deal with this lasting threat,” Breuer told the daily newspaper: “In the next few years we will not be able to go back to where we were before 2022.”

“We should be afraid that Russia will win this war, that Putin will win this war. Because then we will be faced with a completely new security situation in Germany,” Defense Minister Pistorius said on ZDF’s “heute journal” on December 5th. He and Breuer are not the only admonishers.

Dr. Mölling from the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) strongly advised the West to equip the Ukrainians with the conditions for a new offensive in 2024. Otherwise, hesitation could have devastating consequences for Europe in a few years - including for Germany. “It has to be said relatively clearly that we will probably face the consequences of not helping Ukraine and thus continuing to endanger our own security in five or six years,” he stated.