Europe is preparing for Russian President Vladimir Putin to expand his country’s war in Ukraine and attack NATO allied countries next year, leaked documents published in German newspaper BILD reveal.
According to the outlet, which obtained classified military information from the German Defense Ministry, the country’s armed forces are preparing for a “hybrid” Russian attack on Eastern Europe.
The newspaper detailed how multiple potentially alarming scenarios could play out in the coming months.
One of those scenarios, called “Alliance Defense 2025,” would begin in February of this year and Russia would mobilize 200,000 additional soldiers.
Emboldened by the depletion of Western financial support for Ukraine, Russia would then launch a massive “spring offensive” against the Ukrainian armed forces.
The potential scenario describes how Russia could begin waging war in the Baltic countries in July using “severe cyberattacks” while at the same time provoking discontent among Russian citizens in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
In September, those clashes, classified documents show, could be used by Russia as impetus to trigger “Zapad 2024,” a large-scale military ‘exercise’ that would bring together some 50,000 Russian soldiers in the west of the country and Belarus. .
Russian President Vladimir Putin could be preparing for an attack on NATO allies next year, according to leaked German Defense Ministry documents outlining multiple scenarios. fake images
From there, the scenario describes, Russia could move troops and medium-range missiles to Kaliningrad, an 86-square-mile Russian territory located between Lithuania and Poland, both NATO members.
According to the documents, Russia could bombard the region with propaganda warning of an imminent attack by NATO forces, with the ultimate goal of conquering an area known as the Suwalki Gap, a narrow Polish-Lithuanian corridor that lies between Belarus and Kaliningrad.
By December, according to the plot (an exercise in a worst-case scenario), Russia could take advantage of the transition period after the US presidential election and use propaganda, proclaiming fictitious “border conflicts” or “riots with numerous deaths” to incite violence. in the Suwalki Gap area and sow unrest, BILD reports.
A key part of the plan, according to the documents, could be to take advantage of wavering Western support for Ukraine to launch a massive “spring offensive” in the country. POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Following a UN Security Council meeting in January 2025, Russia could falsely accuse Western allies of plotting to move against Putin’s regime, which it could then use to build up troops in Belarus and the Baltics by March 2025.
The leaked document said that in this scenario, 30,000 German troops would be deployed for defense, while an estimated 70,000 Russian forces would have amassed in Belarus. By May 2025, that buildup could lead NATO to enact “credible deterrence measures” to prevent further Russian incursions, resulting in fighting between Western troops and Russian forces.
Putin and Russian officials have repeatedly denied that they would take the Ukrainian conflict beyond the country’s borders. While the plans obtained by BILD are a potential scenario prepared by German army generals, European allies take the threat from Russia seriously and are preparing accordingly.
In Russia’s latest war with Ukraine, which began in February 2022, an estimated half a million Ukrainian and Russian soldiers were killed or wounded. REUTERS
Last week, Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin, a NATO guest, told a “People and Defense” conference that war in Sweden was possible. His opinion was quickly shared by the country’s military commander-in-chief, Micael Bydén, who said: “We need to prepare as much as possible, at all levels, throughout society,” CNBC wrote.
German Defense Ministry officials did not address the 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 business, especially in training.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn