Germany Pistorius warns of hybrid threat from Moscow
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius warns of a hybrid threat to Germany through more or less covert Russian warfare at the behest of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.
22.12.2024, 05:07
SDA
"Putin is launching hybrid attacks, and Germany is a particular target. He knows us well, Putin knows how to pinprick us," the SPD politician told the Funke Mediengruppe newspapers.
The Federal Ministry of Defense defines hybrid warfare as a "combination of classic military operations, economic pressure, computer attacks and propaganda in the media and social networks". The aim of the attackers is "not only to cause damage, but in particular to destabilize societies and influence public opinion. Open, pluralistic and democratic societies offer many targets for this and are therefore easily vulnerable."
Pistorius emphasized that it was important for Germany to prepare itself for this. "We must prepare ourselves so that we can confidently confront Putin's threat. If we ignore the threat because it makes us uncomfortable, it won't get smaller, it will get bigger." There are attacks on infrastructure and energy supplies, activities in the North and Baltic Seas and breaches of airspace regulations.
"In addition, there are social media campaigns, the influencing of election campaigns and the financing of voices that claim, like the AfD and BSW, that we are not concerned with our own protection, but are heading for war with Russia," said Pistorius. This is all part of Putin's strategy to unsettle our society and drive it apart. "We must do everything we can to prevent Putin's strategy from working."
Zelensky threatens retaliatory attacks on Russian territory
Meanwhile, Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, which has been going on for almost three years, continued with night-time airstrikes. The Ukrainian air force located numerous Russian combat drones in the sky on Sunday night. Russian aircraft dropped glide bombs on the Donetsk and Kherson regions. The Ukrainian General Staff reported many battles along the front in Ukraine. In the Russian border region of Kursk, Moscow troops tried with all their might to drive out the Ukrainian soldiers.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi threatened further attacks on military facilities in Russia in retaliation for Russian airstrikes. "We will definitely continue to attack Russian military targets with drones and missiles," he said in a video address. Ukraine is using more and more self-produced weapons. It is against "the military bases, the Russian military infrastructure that is being used for this terror against our people".
By terror, he meant the recent Russian airstrikes on Kiev, Kherson and other cities. In the past week, Russia has used more than 550 glide bombs, almost 550 combat drones and more than 20 missiles of various types against Ukraine, Selenskyj wrote on the social network X.
On Saturday, Ukrainian drones hit residential buildings in the Russian megacity of Kazan, around 1100 kilometers from Ukraine. In the western Russian region of Oryol, a swarm of drones set fire to a fuel plant, the state news agency Tass reported on Sunday night. Further drones were shot down over the Bryansk region before they could cause any damage, according to the regional administration. As a rule, it is almost impossible to independently verify the claims of both warring parties.
Kind words for CIA chief Burns in Kiev
Zelensky received the outgoing director of the US foreign intelligence agency CIA, William Burns, in Kiev and thanked him for his support. "We will certainly meet again, and we will certainly see that this war ends with a real and lasting peace," the president wrote on Platform X on Saturday.
A top diplomat, Burns, 68, has served in the US under Democratic and Republican administrations - including as ambassador to Russia and as deputy secretary of state. As head of the CIA, he visited Moscow in November 2021 and returned convinced that Putin would attack Ukraine. US intelligence on the Russian troop build-up helped Kiev to be prepared for the invasion in February 2022. US intelligence was and is also essential for the country's subsequent defense against the Russian invasion.
Ambassador Melnyk represents Ukraine at the UN
The former Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, is to become his country's new representative at the United Nations in New York. Selenskyj announced the transfer of the current ambassador to Brazil, who will replace the current UN representative Serhij Kyslyzja.
As ambassador in Berlin, Melnyk had criticized the German government unusually openly and harshly for what he considered to be too hesitant arms assistance in the defensive campaign against Russia. In October 2022, he returned to Kiev and became Deputy Foreign Minister. In June 2023, he then moved to Brazil as ambassador. In New York, the sharp-tongued diplomat will meet Russian UN Ambassador Vasily Nebensya, among others.
