German defence minister: Ukraine no longer a regional war

File Photo: June 12, 2024, Berlin: Boris Pistorius (C), Germany’s Defence Minister, comes to the Bundestag’s Defence Committee to present plans for a new military service | Photo: Kay Nietfeld/dpa

Arnsberg, Germany (dpa) – Europe is facing a long-lasting threat as the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine is “no longer a regional war,” German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius warned on Saturday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin “has long since switched completely to a war economy,” and the country is currently producing as many weapons and ammunition in three months as the entire European Union does in a year, Pistorius said.

The minister pointed to a speech Putin gave at the end of October in which the authoritarian Russian leader spoke of a “serious, irreconcilable battle for a new world order” and said that he already saw himself as the victor in the war against the Ukrainians.

At the same time, hybrid warfare with disinformation and fake news is in full swing, said Pistorius, who was speaking at an event in the western town of Arnsberg organized by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, which is affiliated with his centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).

“Our security is a fragile asset,” Pistorius said.

Germany must step up the pace and invest more in its “war capability,” he warned.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday called Russia’s use of an experimental new missile in Ukraine a “terrible escalation” as he defended his administration’s policy on the conflict.

Scholz said President Putin’s authorization of the strike, which hit the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday, was a “terrible escalation, just like the use of North Korean soldiers who are now being deployed and dying in this war for Putin’s imperial dream.”

However, Scholz maintained that his government’s refusal to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles to hit Russian territory was correct.

He said it was necessary to ensure that the conflict in Ukraine does not escalate into a full-blown war between Russia and NATO, calling for prudence. “I stand by that,” Scholz said.

Deputy Press Secretary of the U.S. Department of Defense, Sabrina Singh, said on November 21, “I can confirm that Russia did launch an experimental Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile,” adding, “This IRBM was based on Russia’s RS-26 Rubezh Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) model. In terms of notifications to the United States, the United States was pre-notified, briefly, before the launch, through nuclear risk reduction channels.”

Calling the missile “experimental” because such a weapon has not been used on the battlefield in Ukraine before, Singh said, “This was a new type of lethal capability that was deployed on the battlefield.” The missile carried a conventional warhead but Singh said, “It could be refitted to certainly carry different types of … conventional or nuclear warheads.”

Singh also said an IRBM and an ICBM have similar flight paths, high trajectories and can carry large payloads. “But the main difference lies in the range and the strategic purpose,” she said.

Russian news agency TASS reported the remarks of President Putin on November 21 that strikes on Russian territory with Western long-range missiles had made the conflict in Ukraine a global one.