Lambrecht commented on the threat of Russia using nuclear weapons.
NATO must do more to protect itself from of Russia and President Vladimir Putin, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said on Saturday, because “we cannot know how far Putin's megalomania can go.”
“One thing is certain: the current situation means that we need to do more together,” Lambrecht said during a visit to German troops stationed in Lithuania.
“Russia's brutal war of aggression in Ukraine is becoming more and more brutal and unprincipled… Russia's threat to use nuclear weapons shows that the Russian authorities have no doubts,” Reuters quoted her as saying.
The United States has repeatedly stated that it sees no signs that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons.
Germany sent its first troops to NATO member Lithuania's border with Russia in 2017 after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. In June, she agreed to significantly expand the mission in response to Russia's February 24 invasion of Ukraine.
On Friday, Lambrecht opened a permanent German command center in Lithuania that she said would help shift a brigade of troops from Germany to of Lithuania if necessary in 10 days.
Read also: The US said whether it will review approaches to Russia's nuclear deterrence
The NATO brigade consists of 3,000 to 5,000 troops, and Lambrecht said the frequent exercises in Lithuania would help to redeploy troops quickly if needed to join the 1,000 troops permanently stationed in Lithuania.
“We support our allies,” said Lambrecht.
“We heard threats from Russia against Lithuania, which was implementing European sanctions on the border with Kaliningrad. These are far from the first threats, and we must take them seriously and be ready,” she added.
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Earlier, Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau predicted what NATO's reaction would be to the use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine. . He noted that in such conditions, the North Atlantic Alliance can strike the aggressor country with the help of missiles and aviation, and it is not necessary that this will be done from the territory of our state. Read about what the world's reaction to Russia's nuclear attack on Ukraine might be in the article “If Putin does use nuclear weapons?”
