World War 3 fears grow as Germany joins list of European countries telling civilians to prepare for conflict
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Germans have been put on high alert for a potential World War 3 scenario with Russia, following Vladimir Putin's repeated nuclear strike threats. The situation has escalated further after US President Joe Biden authorised Ukraine to use long-range missiles against Russia, which Moscow claims have already targeted a weapons warehouse in the Bryansk region.
In September, Putin warned that if Western countries allowed Ukraine to launch deep strikes into Russia with their longer-range weapons, "it will mean that NATO countries, the US, European countries are at war with Russia."
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has now stated that Russia presents not only a military but also a hybrid threat, and Europe must adopt a comprehensive defence strategy. The German Foreign Minister has also pledged that Germany will not be "intimidated" by Putin, following revelations that Germany would serve as a NATO staging ground should the conflict escalate further.
According to a 1,000-page document titled 'Operationsplan Deutschland', Germany would host hundreds of thousands of NATO troops and act as a logistics hub for dispatching military equipment, food, and medicine to the front lines. The German army is also advising civilians and businesses on how to safeguard infrastructure and prepare to defend the country against sabotage, drone attacks, and espionage operations.
Germany has set into motion crisis contingency plans which include assigning emergency roles to individuals and stockpiling diesel, echoing initiatives already enacted by Scandinavia. German Defence Minister Mr Pistorius expressed concerns on Tuesday regarding what is assumed to be an act of sabotage affecting two undersea data cables in the Baltic Sea, one of which concludes in Germany, though he admitted that concrete proof is currently lacking, reports The Mirror.
The disruption was discovered on Monday when damage occurred to the C-Lion1 cable stretching from Helsinki to Rostock and another connecting Lithuania to Sweden. Highlighting the incidents, Mr Pistorius said, "No one believes these cables were severed by mistake, and I also don't want to believe versions that it was anchors that by chance caused damage to these cables," during a gathering of EU defence ministers.
He further stated, "So we have to state - without knowing in concrete terms who it came from - that this is a hybrid action. And we also have to assume - without already knowing it, obviously - that this is sabotage."
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