"German elite thinking", "miserable": Impatience abroad is growing - General warns and reaps outrage
Created: 09/17/2022, 06:03
By: Florian Naumann, Patrick Freiwah
Chancellor Scholz visits the Bundeswehr Operations Command.
Behind him: General Inspector Eberhard Zorn.
© IMAGO/Christian Spicker
A Bundeswehr general warns of Putin - and reaped harsh criticism from abroad.
The amazement at Olaf Scholz's government is also growing in some places.
Berlin/Washington - Ukraine has recently gained the upper hand in defending against the Russian war of aggression - and according to expert estimates could even "win" the war.
Germany's highest-ranking Bundeswehr general, Eberhard Zorn, is not very optimistic.
Criticism, also from abroad, follows.
Not least in view of the lack of tank deliveries, the lack of understanding about the German course is now growing.
Also, but not only on the occasion of Zorn's reminders.
Germany in the Ukraine conflict: Bundeswehr general warns of Putin – "Kaliningrad, Baltic Sea, Finland..."
In a conversation with
Focus
, Zorn had expressed skepticism about the strategic counter-offensives in eastern Ukraine.
He sees it only as "counterattacks with which one can win back locations or individual front sections".
What he doesn't believe is that the government troops in Kyiv are strong enough to put a permanent stop to Russia and Vladimir Putin.
The high-ranking soldier Zorn is thus taking a more cautious course than large parts of politics and NATO allies, who are calling for more weapons for Ukraine.
The Bundeswehr officer spoke out against further arms deliveries so as not to further fuel the conflict in Ukraine.
In the interview published on Saturday, Zorn warned that Russia would start another war in Europe and named the hypothetical targets “Kaliningrad, the Baltic Sea, the Finnish border, Georgia, Moldova … there are many possibilities”.
In June, in an interview with
kreisbote.de
, Zorn had not declared the use of tactical nuclear weapons by Russia to be impossible.
Ukraine: Bundeswehr Inspector General warns of further wars in Russia - and receives criticism
Contrary to many Western observers, the Bundeswehr general sees no personnel bottlenecks in Vladimir Putin's army: According to him, the Russian navy and air force in particular still have uncommitted capacities.
In the event of a general mobilization of Russia's armed forces, the Kremlin has "no problems".
Of course, such words do not go down well with military experts on the other side of the Atlantic: Ben Hodges, a former US lieutenant general, criticized the statements via Twitter.
The 64-year-old attested to an "astonishingly poor analysis of Russian abilities, which unfortunately reflects a lot of German elite thinking."
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What the influential ex-general of the US military, which apparently operates a command structure in Ukraine, is getting at: The Bundeswehr overestimates the capabilities of the Russian army: “Finland alone would destroy the Russian armed forces.
Lithuania/Poland would choke Kaliningrad in a week,” explains Hodges.
The Russian navy is hiding behind Crimea - "although Ukraine has no navy".
Ukraine: Surprise at Scholz' government abroad - "Germany must deliver"
Zorn and Hodges: So two generals have fundamentally different ideas about the right war strategy with regard to Russia.
But the debate goes further: There is also the question of whether Germany should also supply battle tanks to Ukraine in addition to various armaments.
The head of the Bundeswehr, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD), announced on Thursday (September 15) the delivery of Mars multiple rocket launchers - plus 50 armored Dingo-type troop carriers.
The main battle tanks and armored personnel carriers desired by Ukraine are not among them.
Even before the new announcement, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had tried to increase the pressure.
"What is Berlin afraid of while Kyiv is not?" he tweeted on Tuesday.
Defense Minister Oleksiy Resnikov told CNBC that he didn't understand "the logic" behind Germany's behavior, at least in view of the situation on the battlefield.
"It could also be a matter of domestic political games," he speculated provocatively.
A similar thesis was heard in the ARD talk Maischberger.
In any case, the two Ukrainian government representatives met with open ears in some foreign media with their own campaigning.
The reference to an impending "go it alone" is "poor", commented about the US portal
bloomberg.com.
However, columnist Andreas Kluth also conceded that the federal government shares a widespread concern: Putin could “escalate”, possibly even resort to a nuclear strike.
Nevertheless, Ukraine must not lose, Germany must deliver.
Scholz' Ukraine course criticized: "Enormous reluctance" - historian wonders about communication
"Over the last four to six months, we've seen an enormous reluctance to be proactive from both the Chancellery and the Department of Defense," analyzed expert Rafael Loss of the European Council on Foreign Relations at CNBC.
He also referred to concerns about a nuclear escalation.
At least the reference to armaments from Soviet stocks that was also to be delivered first had an expiry date: sooner or later these would run out.
Then the West will have to fall back on deliveries of Western design anyway.
The well-known economic historian Adam Tooze expressed himself more benevolently, but nevertheless critically, in an interview with the portal
t-online.de
.
Tooze judged Olaf Scholz to be quite prudent.
In the current situation, the federal government must drive on sight.
"
One really has to be amazed at the way this prudent policy was communicated.
You have to be much more energetic and determined," the Briton reprimanded.
(PF/fn)
Also interesting:
A look behind the scenes of the armament shows: Scholz is letting Ukraine down - a comment
.