Published January 20, 2024
Top NATO official Adm. Rob Bauer warned Thursday that a larger war with Russia and other adversaries is a real threat amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Bauer, chair of the Western security alliance’s Military Committee, said “not everything is going to be hunky dory in the next 20 years.”
“I’m not saying it is going wrong tomorrow, but we have to realize it’s not a given that we are in peace,” he said at a press conference in Brussels. “That’s why we have the plans, that’s why we are preparing for conflict with Russia and the terror groups if it comes to it.”
Bauer emphasized the security alliance is defensive and does not seek conflict or a wider war.
“But if they attack us, we have to be ready,” he added.
Bauer gave the dire warning as NATO announced large-scale exercises next week involving all 31 alliance members, as well as candidate nation Sweden.
The military drills, which run until May and are the largest since the end of the Cold War, will involve 90,000 troops and numerous vehicles, aircraft and ships spread across Europe.
When announcing the drills, NATO leaders emphasized this week that it was vital to prepare for conflict and maintain readiness, even as the alliance remains defensive by nature.
The U.S. is aiding two wars in Israel and Ukraine in one of the most volatile global security challenges it has faced in years.
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SOURCE: www.thehill.com
RELATED: Russia could attack NATO ‘within five years’, German defence minister warns
As 90,000 personnel prepare for the alliance’s biggest military exercises in decades, there’s a warning that Russia could attack by 2034 or sooner and citizens are being urged to get ready for a major conflict.
Boris Pistorius with German troops in December
Published January 19, 2024
Russia could attack NATO within five years, the German defence minister has warned, as the alliance prepares to launch its biggest military exercises in decades amid increasing global uncertainty.
Boris Pistorius told German news outlet, Der Tagesspiegel: “Our experts expect a period of five to eight years in which this could be possible.
“We hear threats from the Kremlin almost every day, so we have to take into account that [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, might even attack a NATO country one day.”
While he said it was unlikely “for now”, Mr Pistorius warned that “we are dealing with a military threat situation in Europe that has not existed for 30 years”.
“We see it through Russia’s attack on Ukraine. We hear threats from the Kremlin almost every day – most recently against our friends in the Baltics.”
His warning comes on the day the chairman of the NATO military committee urged people to be ready for a conflict that would require a significant change to their lives.
Admiral Rob Bauer said: “We have to realise it’s not a given that we are in peace. And that’s why we [NATO forces] are preparing for a conflict with Russia.
“But the discussion is much wider. It is also the industrial base and also the people that have to understand they play a role.”
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SOURCE: www.news.sky.com
RELATED: Germany lays out ‘exercise scenario’ for a potential conflict between NATO and Russia
Published January 16, 2024
The German Ministry of Defence has sketched out a vision of how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could spillover into a NATO-wide conflict.
A secret plan by the German government preparing for a potential Russian aggression against NATO has been leaked, revealing that the country’s Ministry of Defence is bracing for a possible all-out European war in the near future.
According to German newspaper Bild, which has seen the plans, the “exercise scenario” sketched out by the German government foresees an incoming build-up of Russian troops in Belarus and the exclave of Kaliningrad, Russia’s most westerly territory, putting pressure on Poland’s border.
In response to this increased threat, the plan forecasts that NATO will deploy its troops to eastern Europe, heightening tensions in the region.
What might happen next is hard to predict, but the German government has painted a picture of what a possible escalation of the conflict could look like, with Russia using Belarus as a military launchpad once again.
A potential escalation of the Ukraine’s war
In Germany’s “exercise scenario”, the Kremlin would mobilise 200,000 new recruits in February for a new offensive in Ukraine which would allow Moscow to make significant advances on the ground by June.
In July, Russia would begin a campaign of hybrid warfare against the Baltic states. These cyber-attacks in Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia would play on Russia’s false narratives that Russian-speaking minorities in these countries are being unfairly targeted to a degree that demands intervention.
An eruption of violence in these countries will then justify the mobilisation of Russian troops sent to Belarus and western Russia by September.
A month later, Moscow will deploy troops at the Belarusian border with Poland and in Kaliningrad, which sits uncomfortably between Poland and Lithuania. According to the German government, it’s then very likely that Russian troops will target the Suwalki Gap, a strip of land inside the Polish border with Lithuania.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin would push forward anti-NATO narratives at home, claiming that the alliance is preparing to attack Russia.
The German government scenario expects that NATO will deploy 300,000 troops to its eastern borders in an effort to deter Russian aggression, but doesn’t anticipate that NATO will react until early 2025 – crucially, after the US presidential election on 5 November, which may see NATO skeptic Donald Trump re-elected.
While the document is certainly frightening, a spokesperson for the German Ministry of Defence told international news media that the country is not committing to one definite scenario.
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SOURCE: www.euronews.com
