Bundeswehr General: Russia Will Attack NATO Countries Within Two To Three Years
- 27.01.2026, 11:05
Germany will be at the epicenter of events.
German Lieutenant General Gerald Funke believes that Russia will attack NATO countries within two to three years, and Germany will be at the epicenter of events.
He said this in an interview with the Times.
Funke told reporters that in his opinion, in the worst-case scenario of a possible Russian attack on NATO, one of the main problems will be logistics.
The general said the issue is that tens of thousands of allied soldiers need to be transported to the front lines while major road and rail routes could be damaged by Russian sabotage, cyberattacks and possibly long-range missile strikes.
In addition, a potential problem could be the sheer number of wounded that would overwhelm German hospitals on a scale matching the "darkest days" of the coronavirus pandemic.
Bundeswehr has five of its own hospitals with a capacity of 1,800 beds, which would quickly become overwhelmed. That is why the German Armed Forces Support Command and the Federal Ministry of Health have divided the network of civilian hospitals into four sections that can be reserved for the wounded in a crisis situation.
"While in Afghanistan I had an unfortunately large but manageable number of wounded, now I have to plan for the possibility of receiving thousands of wounded per day. The closer you look at it, the more complex it becomes and the harder it is to imagine," the military officer says.
He says the most vulnerable part of Germany's defense in a potential Russian attack will be logistics.
"It is important for us to keep Germany as a logistics hub and to manage the supply lines as smoothly as possible for as long as possible, which means that if one route fails, we will have the ability to use others," Funke adds.
Funke's command, which was created as a result of a major reorganization of the German armed forces last year, is now developing a modern version of a sophisticated Cold War-era system for requisitioning (seizing - ed.) trucks, wagons, food and personnel on a colossal scale.
The general has initiated "standby" agreements with the national railroad operator Deutsche Bahn that require it to supply trains to transport military equipment within three days of notification.
Another difficulty is the German legal system, Funke says. Certain military measures can only be invoked if two-thirds of lawmakers vote to declare a "state of tension" or "state of national defense," which is far from easy for a parliament where more than a third of the seats are held by the radical left and Russia-friendly far right.
Analysts warn that the country may need too much time to emerge from a peaceful regime amid the fast-moving crisis. The Bundeswehr general added that the rigid division between peace and war was an outdated legacy of the 20th century, from a time when hybrid warfare had not reached the level seen today.