FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Russia has the capacity for a limited attack against NATO territory at any time, but a decision to act will depend on the stance of Western allies, a senior German military official has warned.
"If you look at Russia's current capabilities and combat power, it could launch a small-scale attack against NATO territory as early as tomorrow," Lieutenant General Alexander Sollfrank told Reuters in an interview.
"Small, fast, limited to the region, nothing big, Russia is too tied up in Ukraine for that," he added.
Sollfrank, who heads Germany's joint operations command and oversees defense planning, also echoed NATO warnings that Russia could launch a large-scale attack on the 32-member alliance as early as 2029 if its armament efforts continue.
President Vladimir Putin denies aggressive intentions, saying Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was a defense against NATO's expansionist ambitions against Russia.
Speaking at his headquarters, a sprawling barracks north of Berlin, Sollfrank said that despite the setbacks in Ukraine, Russia's air force maintains significant combat power and its nuclear and missile forces remain intact.
And while the Black Sea Fleet has suffered significant losses, other Russian fleets have not been reduced, he said.
Ground forces are suffering losses, but Russia says it aims to increase the total number of its troops to 1.5 million soldiers.
"And Russia has enough main battle tanks to make a limited attack possible as early as tomorrow," Sollfrank added, without saying that such an attack was currently being planned.
Sollfrank has led the joint operations command since its establishment in 2024, a move that reflected a major shift from expeditionary missions like in Afghanistan or Mali, towards defending NATO territory.
Before taking on his current job, Sollfrank headed NATO's logistics command, JSEC, in the southern German city of Ulm.
Recent drone incursions into Polish airspace have fueled Western fears of Russian escalation.
Earlier this year, Berlin loosened its constitutional debt brake to meet NATO's new military spending target of 3.5% of national output by 2029, a move that will boost defense spending to around 160 billion euros ($187 billion) in 2029 from almost 100 billion euros in 2025.
In addition, Germany plans to expand its armed forces by 60,000 troops, bringing the total number of military personnel to around 260,000.
Sollfrank said whether Moscow might choose to attack NATO would be determined by three factors: Russia's military strength, its military history and its leadership.
"These three factors lead me to conclude that a Russian attack is within the realm of possibility. Whether it happens or not depends to a large extent on our behavior," he added, alluding to NATO's deterrence efforts.
The general noted that Moscow's hybrid warfare tactics, including drone interventions, should be seen as interconnected elements of a strategy that also included the war against Ukraine.
"The Russians call this non-linear warfare. In their doctrine, this is warfare before conventional weapons are used. And they threaten to use nuclear weapons, which is warfare by intimidation," Sollfrank said.
Russia's goal, he added, was to provoke NATO and gauge its response, in order to "stir up uncertainty, spread fear, cause damage, spy and test" the alliance's resilience. /Adapted from Reuters/
Lini një Përgjigje