German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has compared Putin’s war against Ukraine to Hitler’s annexation of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and said that Europe should prepare for a large-scale Russian attack.
“Putin will not stop when the war against Ukraine ends,” said Pistorius and added that Europe should prepare for a large-scale attack by Russia.
At the presentation of a new biographical book about Winston Churchill, he stressed that Russian leader Vladimir Putin would not stop when the war against Ukraine is over.
“He has also said that clearly. Just as clearly as (Nazi Germany’s leader Adolf) Hitler, who also always said that he would not stop,” Pistorius said.
At the same time, he called Churchill a strong leader with a clear vision in difficult times. He said that when faced with war, people choose a leader “whom they trust and whom they follow, even though he presents the world in ugly terms”.
Pistorius reiterated his call for an easing of Germany’s debt ceiling to help bolster its military after a €100bn special off-budget fund runs out in 2027.
“We have to put this country back in a position where it can defend itself. We have to decide now whether we want to prepare for a genuine threat from Putin to materialise or whether we want to make it easy for him,” he concluded.
