- A 1,000-page document outlines Germany’s national defence plan, media claim
- Comes as the US authorised use of anti-personnel mines on Ukraine frontline
- Putin yesterday lowered the threshold for nuclear response to attacks on Russia
By DAVID AVERRE and ELENA SALVONI and OLIVIA CHRISTIE
Published: 20:00 AEDT, 20 November 2024 | Updated: 01:26 AEDT, 21 November 2024
European nations are gearing up for an all-out war on the continent as Ukraine launched US-made missiles into Russia for the first time and Vladimir Putin officially lowered the threshold for Moscow to consider a nuclear strike.
Germany‘s foreign minister yesterday vowed her country ‘will not be intimidated’ by Putin, just one day after German media revealed the nation will transform into a NATO staging ground if the conflict to the East should escalate.
According to a 1,000-page document entitled ‘Operationsplan Deutschland’, Germany would reportedly host hundreds of thousands of troops from NATO countries and serve as a logistics hub for sending huge quantities of military equipment, food and medicine toward the front.
A report by Der Spiegel in the summer said as many as 800,000 soldiers from the security bloc could be hosted by Germany as they transit to posts further East.
The German army is also instructing companies and civilians on how to protect key infrastructure and mobilise for national defence, envisaging a situation in which Russia expands drone flights, spying operations and sabotage attacks across Europe.
Businesses have been advised to create crisis plans detailing employee responsibilities during emergencies and will be instructed to stockpile diesel generators or install wind turbines to ensure energy independence.
Germany’s preparation follows examples set by Nordic countries, where pamphlets and emails have already been sent to millions of homes with advice on seeking shelter, stockpiling supplies and rudimentary military training.
Finland reminded its citizens of their ‘national defence obligation’ and recently launched a new information website, while Sweden laid out a detailed guide on how to seek shelter and what to do in case of a nuclear attack.
Their instruction manuals follow similar advice issued by their Baltic neighbours Norway and Denmark, which both put out checklists for food and medicine supplies citizens should have ready.
Meanwhile, the US is set to provide Ukraine’s army with shipments of landmines to slow the advance of Russian ground troops as Putin’s forces wear down Ukrainian defensive lines in Donetsk.
Officials in Washington confirmed late last night that American anti-personnel mines would be sent to Ukraine on the proviso the punishing weapons are only used to repel Russian attacks on Ukrainian territory.
Soldiers of the German Bundeswehr conduct military drills
A German army Main battle tank Leopard 2A7V takes part in drills. According to a 1,000-page document entitled ‘Operationsplan Deutschland’, Germany would host hundreds of thousands of troops from NATO countries if the conflict to the East escalates
In this photo provided by Ukraine’s 24th Mechanised Brigade press service, servicemen of the 24th Mechanised Brigade fire 2s5 self-propelled 152mm howitzer towards Russian positions near Chasiv Yar, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024
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Putin yesterday signed off on an updated version of the Kremlin’s nuclear doctrine that broadens the scope for Moscow to turn to its fearsome atomic arsenal on the same day that US-made missiles rained down on Russian soil.
The new document, first announced in September, allows Putin’s strategic forces to deploy their devastating weapons if Russia or Belarus is threatened by a non-nuclear nation supported by a nuclear power.
Threats that could warrant a nuclear response from Russia’s leadership include an attack with conventional missiles, drones or other aircraft, according to the updated document.
Ukraine’s strike on an ammunition depot in Russia’s Bryansk region yesterday with US-supplied ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) meets these criteria, with Moscow saying that it marks a ‘new phase of the Western war’.
‘This is, of course, a signal that they want to escalate,’ Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said, while foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin said attempts by NATO countries to facilitate Ukrainian missile strikes deep inside Russia ‘would not go unpunished’.
But Ukraine’s foreign ministry issued a defiant statement in spite of the Kremlin’s nuclear sabre-rattling, declaring that ‘Ukraine will never submit to the occupiers and the Russian military will be punished for violating international law’.
‘We need peace through strength, not appeasement,’ the ministry added, as Volodymyr Zelensky called on Kyiv‘s allies to ‘force’ Moscow into a ‘just peace’ and vowed his troops would ‘never surrender’.
The US provision of ATACMS to Ukraine for strikes in Russia along with shipments of anti-personnel mines suggests the Biden administration is scrambling to leave Ukraine on the best possible footing ahead of Donald Trump‘s return to the White House.
In Eastern Ukraine, Russia’s forces are steadily grinding towards the logistics hub of Pokrovsk having taken large swathes of territory in the Donetsk region in recent months.
Putin’s army took 185 square miles of Ukrainian territory in October, a record since the first weeks of the conflict in March 2022, according to an analysis of data provided by the real-time conflict tracker from the Institute for the Study of War.
There are mounting concerns that Trump could push for a hasty ceasefire requiring Ukraine to cede significant portions of its territory – a prospect that leaves both sides fighting to capture as much land as possible to strengthen their position ahead of negotiations.
Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock yesterday vowed that her country ‘will not be intimidated’ by Putin
Russian army’s multiple rocket launcher Solntsepyok fires towards Ukrainian positions in the border area of Kursk region last week
Vladimir Putin on Tuesday morning signed off on an updated version of the Kremlin’s nuclear doctrine that broadens the scope for Moscow to turn to its fearsome atomic arsenal
ATACMS – Army Tactical Missile – being fired from an M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System
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Russia’s threats were also dismissed by German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock yesterday.
Speaking in Poland at a meeting of EU foreign ministers marking the 1000th day of war in Ukraine, Baerbock said of Putin’s aggression: ‘He didn’t just start doing this 1,000 days ago. He started back in 2014.
‘Germany in particular made the mistake back then, especially politically, of allowing itself to be intimidated by this fear and, above all, not listening to its partners – especially our Eastern European partners who made it clear at the time: We must not rely on promises from the Kremlin.
‘We must invest in our own security and protection,’ she concluded.
The ‘Operationsplan Deutschland’, details of which were first released by Frankfurter Allegmeine, appear central to the German government’s contingency plan to prepare the country for war.
German Lieutenant Colonel and Head of Hamburg State Command Jörn Plischke is one staunch advocate of the need to prepare for a possible war in Europe and has embarked on a drive to ‘shake up’ Germany’s industrial and agricultural sectors.
Speaking at a meeting at the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce, the Colonel declared companies in these sectors must train five extra truck drivers per hundred employees.
Ukraine fires first US-made missile into Russia: WW3 fears as Kremlin threatens ‘nuclear response’
‘Seventy per cent of truckers on German roads are Eastern Europeans,’ Plischke said. ‘If there’s a war there, where will they be?’
He went on to implore companies to ensure they are self-sufficient by securing alternate energy sources and stockpiling supplies.
Meanwhile, NATO is holding its largest-ever artillery exercise just 70 miles from the border where the British Army is testing what military chiefs have described as a ‘game-changing’ weapon.
Finland, which joined the military alliance last year, is hosting up to 3,600 soldiers from 28 nations for the exercise, known as Dynamic Front.
Live fire drills began on Sunday in the northern Lapland region, and are part of a series of exercises, with further ones planned in Estonia, Germany, Romania and Poland.
The British Army is using the opportunity to put its Archer 155-mm guns to the test, weapons which can release high explosive shells or GPS-guided munitions and hit targets 30 miles away.
The guns have been labelled a battlefield game-changer by British troops, with Major Barney Ingram telling the i newspaper that ‘you can, realistically, with this capability, neutralise most targets’.
Snowflakes are illuminated during live firing of the British Army’s new Archer Mobile Howitzer gun near Rovaniemi in the Arctic Circle
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