As the West continues to wage a hybrid proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, supplying the Kiev regime with modern weapons systems, it has been hyping up allegations of a broader "Russian threat" for all of Western Europe and NATO – claims that have been dismissed as false and ridiculed by the Kremlin.
"Germany is gearing up for “war between NATO’s forces and Russia,” which could begin in the summer of 2025, Bild has written, citing a "secret" Bundeswehr document. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commenting on the publication said it is nothing but fake news. "I would not like to comment on the report of Bild, this news outlet does not hesitate to use fake news," Peskov told reporters.
According to the alleged "training scenario" of the German Ministry of Defense, “on ‘Day X,’ NATO’s commander-in-chief will give the order to move 300,000 troops to the eastern flank, including 30,000 Bundeswehr soldiers,” the tabloid states. The escalation could reportedly begin as early as February 2024 with the start of Russia’s active offensive against the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. By June of the same year, according to Bild, Russia will have forced Kiev’s military to retreat. The Kiev regime's much-hyped 2023 counteroffensive which began in June suffered a resounding defeat. The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost more than 125,000 people and 16,000 units of weapons over the six-month counteroffensive, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated in late December. Without offering any specific details, the publication noted that the most likely location for a "clash" will purportedly be the so-called "Suwalki Gap" or "Suwalki Corridor" (Przesmyk suwalski). This is a section about 100 km long near the city of Suwalki in the northeast of Poland, located between Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad region. In July, according to the “secret document,” Russia might allegedly launch “cyber attacks and other forms of hybrid warfare” against the Baltic countries. Furthermore, “clashes” would occur which Moscow ostensibly could use as a pretext to begin large-scale exercises on its territory and in Belarus, as per the authors. By October Russia could allegedly transfer troops and medium-range missiles to its Kaliningrad region, and December might see a border conflict erupt in the Suwalki Corridor. According to Bild, the “secret document” also indicates that when Washington is temporarily left without a leader as a result of the presidential elections in the United States in 2014, “Russia, with the support of Belarus, will repeat the 2014 invasion of Ukraine on NATO territory.” No further clarification is offered to these wild scenarios and off-mark references. One can guess what the mention of 2014 events refers to the Euromaidan (lit. "Euro Square") coup fomented and sponsored by the West that culminated in the ouster of Ukraine’s government, and its replacement with a pro-US, and pro-NATO regime hostile to Russia. Furthermore, Ukraine is not a member of NATO, and its chances of gaining the coveted status in the alliance remain uncertain.
“Actions of Russia and the West, culminating in the dispatch of hundreds of thousands of NATO soldiers and the inevitable outbreak of war in the summer of 2025 are described down to the exact month and location,” the publication stated in reference to the ‘secret’ Bundeswehr plan.
However, the authors of the report leave open the question of how this hypothetical escalation will end.
This is hardly the first time that Bild writes about Russia reportedly gearing up for a "war with NATO." Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reacted with irony to the publication, commenting on Telegram that she “did not rule out that the analytical part for the Bundeswehr was provided by the German Foreign Ministry under the leadership of (Germany's minister for foreign affairs) Baerbock.”
The Bild report and the "training scenario" it sheds light upon comes as NATO's proxy war against Russia has been used to increasingly militarize Europe, which has already been exhausted both economically and militarily in the course of the Ukraine conflict. Following the beginning of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022, the US and its NATO allies ramped up the provision of lethal weapons to Kiev, boosted military modernization of European forces, while also increasing their military presence in Central and Eastern Europe. NATO has committed itself to be able to deploy at least 300,000 troops in Central and Eastern Europe, while building military infrastructure in Poland, the Baltic States, Romania, and other states on the continent, pundits have told Sputnik. Furthermore, Poland's militarization, they pointed out, is one way for the US and the UK to control Europe, with Warsaw envisioned as the leader of an "Eastern-European NATO."
In response to NATO's fanning of the Ukraine conflict and military buildup, in April 2023, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the nuclear-capable Iskander-M tactical missile system had been transferred to the Armed Forces of Belarus. Immediately, the German and EU leadership accused Moscow of threatening the bloc's security and posing a "threat of attack" by deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
In effect, Russia has only been responding to NATO's continuous expansion. Moscow's determination to protect itself and its allies has been explicitly outlined in its new foreign policy doctrine, signed by Russian President Putin on March 31, 2023.
"Recently, the activity of the NATO military bloc as a whole has sharply increased. Significant forces from the United States, including aircraft, have been deployed to our borders, and the number of alliance troops in Eastern and Central Europe has increased," Russian President Vladimir Putin stated while presiding over a Russian Ministry of Defense meeting on December 19. As for the repeated attempt to portray Russia as the "bogeyman," he clarified:
"(The US]) was very frightened by Russia's rapprochement with Europe. It should be the masters there. It kept scaring ... evil Russia is threatening you. But I talked to many leaders and they tell me: 'Why are they scaring us? We understand that Russia is not going to fight with Europe.' Yes, we are not going to (fight) now."
The United States deliberately dragged Russia and Europe into conflict and achieved its goal, but Moscow had no other options, the president said, noting that Russia has not interfered and will not interfere in European affairs.
Putin also said that Russia does not need NATO countries now and will not need them in future.
"The US leadership says: if they [Russians] win in Ukraine now, NATO countries will be next. Why do we need these NATO countries? We do not need them, we never needed them, and we do not need them now, and we will not need them in the future," he added.
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