Germany Defense Minister Lambrecht said NATO must “do more” in the face of Putin’s “delusions of grandeur.”
According to Lambrecht, she said the military alliance must “do more” to protect itself from Russia as President Putin continued to issue Nuclear threat.
She said, “One thing is certain: the current situation means we need to do more together,”
Lambrecht stressed on the unpredictable nature of Putin saying that, no one can “know how far Putin’s delusions of grandeur can go. The brutal Russian war of aggression in Ukraine is getting more and more brutal and unscrupulous. Russia’s threat of nuclear weapons shows that Russian authorities have no scruples.”
President Putin on many occasion warned the Western allies off the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, boasting of his superior nuclear weapons to deter external interference between Russia and Ukraine.
Though the United States has debunked the idea of Putin resolving to nuclear war, saying that it sees no indication that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons, but President Putin had not yet stopped warning of devastating consequences should any country engaged in the conflicts.
Lambrecht also reiterated Berlin’s commitment to strengthening NATO’s eastern flank saying “We’ve heard Russia’s threats to Lithuania, which was implementing European sanctions on the border with Kaliningrad. They are not the first threats, and we must take them seriously and be prepared,” she said. “We stand by our allies.”
Lithuania borders the Russian exclave Kaliningrad as well as Moscow ally Belarus.
On Friday, Lambrecht inaugurated a permanent German command center in Lithuania. She said the center would help move a NATO brigade, made up of 3,500-5,000 troops, to Lithuania in 10 days if needed.
There are currently about 1,600 NATO soldiers stationed in Lithuania.
“The security of Lithuania is the security of Germany. It is this promise of common security that we are recommitting ourselves to today,” Lambrecht said during a visit to Lithuania, where she met with German troops deployed there as part of a NATO mission and Lithuanian counterpart Arvydas Anusauskas.
(Reuters)