Berlin, Nov 9 (UNI) Cranking up its militarisation, Germany is now preparing to deploy over 800,000 NATO troops towards the Russian border over fears of a potential conflict with Russia, said Lt Gen Alexander Sollfrank, Commander of the Bundeswehr's Joint Operations Command.
The hypothetical deployment is part of 'Operations Plan Germany', which was revealed last year. The 1,000-page-long document governs Berlin's response if Article 5 of the NATO treaty is triggered in a confrontation with Moscow.
It includes turning Berlin into a major logistics hub for the deployment of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and pieces of equipment from various NATO nations against a hypothetical scenario of military aggression from the Kremlin. The deployment must be completed within 180 days of the start of the conflict.
According to Sollfrank, the plan may be implemented sooner rather than later.
"Russia possesses a very large military potential despite the war in Ukraine," he told an annual Bundeswehr conference in Berlin on Friday, adding that "Russia is already capable of (launching) a limited attack on the NATO territory", reports RT.
There have been rising fears in Berlin over a possible war with Moscow, with German officials increasingly speaking of an alleged Russian threat, worries exacerbated after Russian drones crossed the airspace of EU nations such as Poland, Latvia, and Estonia.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz has previously declared that diplomatic options for resolving the Ukraine conflict are "exhausted" and doubled down on providing weapons to Kyiv.
On Friday, both he and Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said that Germany's existence in its present form was threatened by Russia. "It is not alarmism… when I say that our way of life is in danger," Pistorius told the military conference.
Russia, for its part has repeatedly rubbished the allegations, calling them "nonsense" and said that Moscow has no intention of holding any military engagements with NATO, nor does it have any hostile intent.
Officials in the Kremlin accused Berlin of 'fearmongering' with the 'demonisation of Russia' which was aimed at justifying its skyrocketing military spending, which Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov previously alleged were "clear signs of re-Nazification."

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