Putin raises spectre of further war in brazen trip to Europe
VLADIMIR PUTIN stoked fears of a war with Eastern Europe by threatening Kaliningrad’s neighbours on a surprise visit to the Russian exclave.
The Russian president, who flew close to Nato airspace on his trip to European soil, warned the nations bordering Kaliningrad that they did not know “what would follow” their decision to tear down Soviet war memorials.
“This is stunning ignorance and lack of understanding of where they live, what they are doing and what will follow,” he told students at the Kant Baltic Federal University. Kaliningrad, which is between Lithuania and Poland, and was absorbed by Russia after the Second World War, is seen as the probable flashpoint for any war with Nato.
Mr Putin’s unannounced visit came as EU leaders and Nato chiefs warned that the West was not prepared for the outbreak of war with Moscow.
Rishi Sunak on Wednesday ruled out conscription after the head of the British Army said civilians would need to be called up in the event of a conflict.
Yesterday, Boris Pistorius, Germany’s defence minister, said neither the military nor the public was ready for war. Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s foreign minister, said “we’re convinced that a real war is a likely possibility” ahead of an EU meeting in Brussels. The Kremlin denied that Putin’s visit was a “message” to Nato, despite it coming amid debate over an escalation.
Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia last week agreed to set up a Baltic defence zone on their borders with Russia and Belarus. They will build a wall of “antimobility defensive installations” and develop missile-artillery co-operation.
Camille Grand, an analyst with the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank, said Putin was sending a message to the West with his visit. “This is... a clear attempt to signal that the Baltic Sea is not Nato sea after Finland, and soon Sweden, joined Nato,” she said.
GERMANY is not ready to defend itself from the security problems that will face Europe in the future, the country’s defence minister warned.
Boris Pistorius, who has often called for Germany to become “war ready” since taking up his post a year ago, said it needed to prepare to confront threats posed by Russia and other actors.
“Are we seriously ready to defend this country in an emergency? And who is this ‘we’? This debate has to be had,” he told trainee soldiers at a military academy in Hamburg on Wednesday.
Mr Pistorius warned that peace in Europe was “no longer an irrefutable certainty”, adding that the role of the Bundeswehr had changed amid the shifting security challenges faced by Germany and its other Nato allies.
‘Are we seriously ready to defend this country in an emergency? This debate has to be had’
“Germany is a stronger and more active player in security policy, including militarily,” he said.
Mr Pistorius’s remarks echo similar warnings from other European and Nato figures about the need to prepare for war, and came after his ministry announced plans this week to allow foreigners to join the German army.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Bundeswehr has stepped up recruitment efforts to meet its new target of 20,000 extra troops, with a series of advertising campaigns targeting Generation Z, as well as plans to allow flexible working.
Mr Pistorius, whose popularity has surged amid a decline in support for crisis-hit Chancellor Olaf Scholz, admitted many Germans with a postwar tradition of pacifism “don’t like these conversations and thoughts”. But he warned “only if we are willing to have these discussions and set the necessary course will we as a society become more resilient and able to defend ourselves.”