The Czechs have never forgotten that allies handed over their Sudetenland Province to Hitler in 1938 after the German dictator promised it would be “the last territorial demand I have to make in Europe.”

Months later, Nazis occupied their country and waged war in Europe and around the world for seven more years, killing tens of millions.

To many today, Ukraine is the next Sudetenland as it fends off another war criminal with imperial ambitions who promises he will stop once it is occupied. The synchronicity is obvious and is why one of the most hawkish and driven leaders in Europe is Czech President Petr Pavel, a retired general and former NATO advisor.

He has been as outspoken and blunt about Putin’s ruthless intention to swallow Ukraine and Europe as was Winston Churchill in the 1930s. And he has also taken the lead by devising a scheme to prevent Ukraine from running out of needed munitions shortly due to US and EU delays. On March 7, he announced that Kyiv will receive between 800,000 and 1 million rounds of artillery ammunition in weeks.

Pavel quietly procured one year’s’ worth of ammo from arsenals around the world, on a no-names basis, in order to safeguard suppliers from Russian retaliation. He’s done so because “if Ukraine fails, so will we.”

President Pavel is blunt. He believes that once again Europe hurtles toward war, and that, if Kyiv falls, war in the rest of Europe is inevitable and troops must be ready for such a potential outcome. He’s a proponent of whatever it takes to halt Putin, and dismisses Putin’s claims that he has no interest in invading another NATO nation.

In the aftermath of the attack on Crocus City Hall near Moscow, for which Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility, fears of attacks by Islamist terrorists are growing in other countries.

In August, at the 55th anniversary of the “Prague Spring” (or the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet troops that crushed its democratic movement) he remarked “Russia has not changed… The 1968 invasion was a time of lost dreams and lost dignity.

We should remember what it felt like. Because Ukraine only wants what we wanted at the time. They want to determine their own path. Russia hasn’t changed since then – the country has a different name, but its foreign policy, its values are the same.”

Pavel is the Czech Republic’s head of state, not an elected politician, a position that provides him with enhanced stature and influence that he uses to help bolster Europe’s resolve and strength. He describes Putin’s ambitions as Hitlerian and also has provided ammo and motivation for the fearful Euros: They are next on the conquest list and that America’s support falters and may disappear if Donald Trump wins.

While Joe Biden remains ahead in polls, even a small chance he will lose represents a gigantic existential threat to all Europeans and they know this. This is why the next two years are crucial, warned Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. “We are living in the most critical moment since the end of the Second World War.”

Pavel and Tusk influenced France’s Emmanuel Macron to speak out publicly two weeks ago about the possibility that European “boots on the ground” may be necessary to help Ukraine and prevent all-out war across the continent. Macron’s comment, the leader of the European Union’s only nuclear power, immediately generated attention.

Putin mouthpieces responded that NATO troops in Ukraine would constitute a threat by NATO and warned about a possible nuclear response. In Berlin and Washington, the notion of European escalation caused a furor among its elite where war politics have become complicated and gridlocked.

But Macron was correct to raise the possibility and Pavel supported him. “From the point of view of international law and the UN Charter, there would be nothing to prevent NATO member states’ troops—as well as civilians, for example—from assisting in the work in Ukraine,” he said. For instance, NATO had training missions inside Ukraine after Russia’s first invasion in 2014 of Crimea and the Donbas region.

On March 20, a report by the once-removed, but credible, Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank also emphasized that Putin’s intention is to escalate beyond Ukraine. “Several Russian financial, economic, and military indicators suggest that Russia is preparing for a large-scale conventional conflict with NATO, not imminently but likely on a shorter timeline than what some Western analysts have initially posited.”

It added “Polish President Andrzej Duda told CNBC that Putin is intensifying efforts to shift Russia to a war economy with the intention of being able to attack NATO as early as 2026 or 2027, citing unspecified German research.

Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen stated on Feb. 9 that new intelligence indicates that Russia may attempt to attack a NATO country within three to five years, an accelerated timeline from NATO’s reported assessment in 2023.”

There’s also concern that the current frontline in Ukraine won’t hold, but Pavel’s delivery of ammunition soon will help greatly. Ukraine’s Commander in Chief Oleksandr Syrsky said last week that Russia outguns Ukrainian forces sixfold on the front lines.

And after the latest civilian bombing attacks, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky told the media that “we need help now.” Ukrainians prepare for another Russian offensive at the end of May or June.

If successful, Russia will keep going west and some speculate that Putin may try once more to capture Kharkiv then Kyiv. “For him, we are a satellite of Russian Federation,” said Zelensky. “At the moment, it’s us, then Kazakhstan, then Baltic states, then Poland, then Germany. At least half of Germany.”

Russia already threatens NATO members and a number of incidents have come close to direct attacks, which would invoke the Charter pledge that an assault on one is an assault on all 32 nation-state members.

On March 29, Poland stated that a Russian cruise missile, fired at Ukraine, entered Poland’s airspace. “I don’t want to scare anyone, but war is no longer a concept from the past. It’s real, and it started over two years ago,” Polish President Tusk told the BBC. And Estonia’s foreign-intelligence service declared in a report last month that Russia was preparing for a “confrontation with the West.”

Pavel suggests that European nations mobilize and impose war measures now, by enhancing border and cybersecurity and by placing any Russian citizens living in their countries under “strict surveillance” by intelligence services.

“All Russians living in Western countries should be monitored much more than in the past because they are citizens of a nation that leads an aggressive war,” Pavel said in an interview with Radio Free Europe. “That’s simply a cost of war.”

Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, the current NATO military committee chief, said in Brussels that NATO will soon be launching the Steadfast Defender 2024 exercise, which will run through May and deploy 90,000 troops who will rehearse the alliance’s execution of its regional plans.

“This will show that NATO can conduct and sustain complex multi-domain operations over several months, across thousands of kilometers, from the High North to Central and Eastern Europe, and in any condition,” the 31-nation organization said in a statement.

European leaders now openly discuss the seriousness of the situation, but Putin said this month that Moscow had “no aggressive intentions” towards NATO countries. He said it was “complete nonsense” that Russia would attack NATO members Poland, the Baltic states and the Czech Republic.

However, he warned that if Ukraine used Western F-16 warplanes from airfields in other countries, they would become “legitimate targets, wherever they might be located.”

President Pavel simply urges preparation, not panic. “We’ve all agreed that it is in our imminent interest that Ukraine succeed,” he said in an interview. “On the other hand, there are many variables in the calculation that could change the situation. It will really depend on the outcome of the conflict in Ukraine. All armies are preparing for the possibility of a high-intensity conflict.”

Source: Kyiv Post

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This could present a boost for Ukrainian defense production amid ammunition shortages and dwindling supplies from the U.S.

“Ukraine is now an important partner for us, where we see a potential of between 2 and 3 billion euros ($2.18-$3.27 billion) per year,” Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said during a presentation of the company’s 2023 results, the AFP wrote.

Previously, the company signed a contract with the Ukrainian Defense Industry (Ukroboronprom) in October 2023 to repair and produce armored vehicles directly in Ukraine in a joint plant.

During the Munich Security Conference in February, Papperger signed a memorandum of intent with Ukraine’s Strategic Industries Minister Oleksandr Kamyshin to produce artillery shells in another joint plant based in Ukraine.

Source: The Kyiv Independent

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Chancellor says protests are ‘strong sign in favour of democracy’ as demonstrators gather in Berlin, Dresden, Hanover and other cities

About 200,000 people have taken to the streets of Germany in further protests against the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Protests on Saturday also took place in Dresden, Mainz and Hanover in a sign of growing alarm at strong public support for AfD.

Roughly 150,000 people flocked to the Reichstag parliament building in Berlin, where protesters gathered under the slogan “We are the Firewall” to protest against right-wing extremism and to show support for democracy.

The chancellor, Olaf Scholz, wrote on X: “Whether in Eisenach, Homburg or Berlin: in small and large cities across the country, many citizens are coming together to demonstrate against forgetting, against hatred and hate speech.”

He said the protests were “a strong sign in favour of democracy and our constitution”.

AfD’s success has stoked concern among Germany’s mainstream parties, who fear it could win three state elections in eastern Germany in September, even though recent polls have shown a slight decline in AfD support.

Jakob Springfeld, who speaks for the NGO Solidarity Network Saxony, said he was shocked that it had taken such a long time for mass demonstrations against the far right, given the AfD had been successful in many smaller communities already.

“But there’s a jolt now. And the fact that the jolt is coming provides hope I believe,” he said.

Earlier this week, a Forsa poll showed that backing for AfD had dropped below 20% for the first time since July, with voters citing countrywide demonstrations against the far right as the most important issue.

According to the poll, AfD remained in second place behind the main opposition party, the conservative Christian Democratic Union, on 32%, while Scholz’s centre-left Social Democrats polled third at 15%.

The protests, which are now in their fourth week, followed a report last month that two senior AfD members had attended a meeting to discuss plans for the mass deportation of citizens of foreign origin. AfD has denied that the proposal represented party policy.

AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla told broadcaster Deutschlanfunk that while it was “legitimate to take to the streets”, protesters should not allow themselves to be used to distract parties from the country’s actual problems.

Chrupalla said Germany included Germans with a migrant background and that his party was not planning to expel them.

Source

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Jakarta, Surakarta, Berlin (7/12 – 11)

Amid a generally declining period for Germany’s national football team, the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Indonesia has been a shining light for them. Germany is one of the most successful national teams ever in international competition. They have won four World Cups (1954, 1974, 1990, 2014), three European Championships (1972, 1980, 1996), and a Confederations Cup (2017). Nevertheless, in recent years, Germany is suffering a horrid fate.

In 2018, Germany suffered their first-ever first-round exit from the World Cup, since 1938. Germany became the fifth defending champions to be eliminated in the group stages of the World Cup, following Brazil in 1966, France in 2002, Italy in 2010, and Spain in 2014. Again, they were knocked out of the World Cup in the group stage for the second consecutive tournament in 2022.

At the UEFA European Championship in 2020, Germany also fell short. They only managed to reach the round of 16. At the UEFA Nations League, Germany consecutively finished 11th in 2018-2019, 8th in 2020-2021, and 10th in 2022-2023.

This year, poor performances persist, confirming that Germany is in a long decline. They lost six times and only won three times in eleven matches throughout the year. Julian Nagelsmann was installed as new Head Coach on 22 September 2023, but lost to Turkey and Austria last month in his first two games.

In the middle of this crisis, there is finally good news for Germany, from their participation in the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup. Last Saturday, Germany were victorious in the final against France. They lifted the trophy after a hard-fought game, which ended 2-2 in regulation time. Germany went on to beat France 4-3 in a penalty shootout at Manahan Stadium, Surakarta, Central Java.

For the first time in history, Germany was crowned as world champions at the U-17 level, completing their World Cup trophies at senior and U-20 level. These young Germans show that they have a lot of potential. They were unbeaten throughout the World Cup tournament in Indonesia.

Worth noting that six months earlier, this team also won the 2023 UEFA European U-17 Championship. Germany has become the first nation to win the UEFA European U-17 Championship and U-17 World Cup in the same year. Some of their players shone and could be counted as stars for the future. Forward Paris Brunner received the Golden Ball award as the best player in the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup. Brunner followed in the footsteps of his fellow countryman Toni Kroos, who won the coveted award in 2007.

If Kroos manages to go on and become the 2014 FIFA World Cup winner, nobody can write Brunner off for not achieving the same. Midfielder and captain Noah Darvich already made a notable name, as Barcelona recruited him in August.

Max Moerstedt, Robert Ramsak, Bilal Yalcinkaya, Eric da Silva Moreira, David Odogu, Maximilian Henning, and Charles Hermann are several other players that could form the backbone of the German national team in the next ten years. “We have got players with incredible talent who also have a great mentality. This combination makes anything possible,” Germany’s coach Christian Wuck said.

Obviously, it’s still a long way for Noah Darvich and Co to prove their worth in the next steps, because success at the youth level doesn’t often translate into success for the first team. Nevertheless, the U-17 team’s accomplishment in Indonesia definitely brings hope that there is a light at the end of the dark tunnel that Germany is in right now.

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will pay a visit to Berlin on Nov. 16-17 to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, as well as President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to discuss the latest developments regarding the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

The leaders will discuss “the entire range of political issues” during a meeting at the chancellery on Friday evening, a German government spokesperson said.

It would be Erdoğan’s first visit to Germany since 2020. Some 3 million people with Turkish roots live in Germany.

Erdoğan’s accusations against Israel have stoked fresh tensions with the European Union.

Indicating that Western countries, which constantly talk about human rights and freedoms and democracy, are watching Israel’s massacres from afar, Erdoğan on Tuesday said: “These countries and organizations are so helpless that they cannot even call for a cease-fire, let alone criticize child murderers. Seventy-three percent of the nearly 11,000 Gazans brutally killed by Israel are women and children.”

Scholz said on Friday that the German government will continue its diplomatic efforts to prevent the Gaza war from turning into a major regional conflict.

“Together with the U.S., our European allies and our partners in the region, we are doing everything we can diplomatically to prevent this from becoming a conflagration,” he said at a military conference in Berlin.

The German government says it bears historical responsibility for the security of Israel due to the country’s Nazi past and crimes committed against Jews.

Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is beginning her Middle East tour on Friday as part of Berlin’s diplomatic efforts to stop further escalation of the crisis.

The conflict escalated dramatically after Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct. 7 by firing thousands of rockets and sending hundreds of its members into Israeli towns.

Israel responded by an uninterrupted campaign of air and artillery strikes on Gaza and recently expanded its ground operations to root out Hamas. Civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and refugee camps, were also targeted by the Israeli forces.

At least 10,812 Palestinians, including 4,412 children and 2,918 women, have been killed so far, according to health authorities.

Source: Daily Sabah

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Ukraine has established a joint defense venture with German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall AG to maintain and repair Western weapons sent to help Kyiv against Russian invasion, officials said on Tuesday.

Announced by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at a German-Ukrainian Business Forum in Berlin, the venture will also help with the localization of some key equipment produced by Rheinmetall AG, he said.

It will bring “cooperation between our countries to a qualitatively new level and will allow us to build together the arsenal of the free world,” Shmyhal told the forum.

Ukraine relies heavily on financial and military support from the West, which has poured in tens of billions of dollars of weapons since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Germany is a key ally.

Oleksander Kamyshyn, minister for strategic industries, said Ukraine was committed to launching the production of Western weapons locally to keep up with growing Ukrainian demand, with the war now at the 20-month mark with no end in sight. He said he met 25 major German defense producers in Berlin. Ukrainian officials hope cooperation with Western arms producers can help revive a domestic arms industry plagued by inefficiency and lack of transparency for years before Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

Kyiv also wants to try to reduce its reliance on Western aid, create an additional boost for the economy, and speed up ammunition supplies to the front to support its counteroffensive against a bigger Russian army.

Ukraine launched the counteroffensive in early June to try to recapture territory occupied by Russia. Still, five months in, its troops face a fierce Russian attack on the eastern front line near Avdiivka in the Donetsk region and Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region.

General Serhiy Naev, commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, praised the efficiency and precision of Western weapons, saying they provided a sense of certainty on the battlefield.

“Western weapons are very technological,” Naev said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app.

Rheinmetall said in a statement it owned a 51% stake in the venture that would operate on Ukrainian territory. “The first project will be repairing of German equipment, tanks, heavy armored vehicles, Panzerhaubitzers and other German equipment,” Shmyhal told reporters in Berlin.

“All other production projects – it’s not public information, but we have some plans for what to produce in Ukraine, but the companies will announce it by themselves when the time will come.”

Source: Daily Sabah

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Four former executives have been charged with illegally selling software to Turkey’s secret services so it could spy on the country’s opposition. The suspects are from the Munich-based FinFisher which develops spyware.

German authorities have filed charges against four suspects from a firm over allegations that they sold surveillance software to Turkey’s intelligence services, Munich prosecutors said on Monday.

Prosecutors say the suspects intentionally violated licensing requirements for dual-use goods by selling surveillance software to non-EU countries.

The accused — from the Bavarian-based FinFisher — have been charged with commercial violations of the German trade and payments act in three separate cases.

FinSpy software at the center of probe

According to the prosecutors in southern Germany, the firm struck a deal worth in excess of €5 million ($5.4 million) in 2015 to sell monitoring software to Ankara intelligence, along with training and support.

The spyware allows those who deploy it to acquire control of computers and smartphones, as well as follow communications.

Prosecutors said the Finspy software was provided to a Turkish opposition movement in 2017 to download from a fraudulent website “under false pretenses, in order to spy on them.” 

The probe was sparked after four non-governmental organizations — the Society for Civil Liberties, Reporters Without Borders, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and Netzpolitik.org.  — all filed complaints.

Source: DW

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The first leopards arrived in Ukraine on Feb 24, marking the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion. It was Poland who has officially delivered Leopard 2 main battle tanks. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki during his visit to Kyiv tweeted: “Poland, as the country that was the first to successfully build this coalition of Leopards, today also wants, as the first European country, to give you @ZelenskyyUa the first 4 Leopards.” 

The tweet came with a photo of him and Ukrainian Prime Minister, Denys Schmyhal shaking hands in front of the tanks. Poland planned to send fourteen tanks.

Happy with the news, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov didn’t hesitate to climb on top of one of these tanks and tweeted, “Together with Ms @Denys_Shmyhal and @MorawieckiM met new beasties in our Ukrainian military zoo – 4 Leopard2A4!”

Overall, 11 countries have pledged to deliver tanks to Ukraine, according to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. 

Spanish Government announced they would send 10 Leopard-2 tanks to Ukraine. Finland also announced it would transfer three Leopard-2 tanks from its stock. Norway has also announced that it would donate eight vehicles and four “special purpose tanks.”

Sweden’s prime minister Ulf Kristersson announced Stockholm will send up to 10 Leopard 2A5 tanks. Besides the Leopard 2, Ukraine is set to receive the US Abrams and the British Challenger 2 tanks in the coming months.

Meanwhile, in recent months Germany was accused by many in Europe of being the hold-up for getting main battle tanks sent to Ukraine.

“I see that there is broad support for the strategy and activities of the government,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “We are a democratic country and there are some who worry whether it is a good idea to do all the sanctions and deploy so many weapons to Ukraine. But even the big majority, in the end, accept that the government has to take a responsible decision and trust us in doing what we do.”

Germany’s Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht resigned following a series of blunders and PR disasters. She was widely criticized for failing to improve Germany’s notoriously ill-equipped armed forces and for having taken her son on a trip in a military helicopter.

The main trigger is the video when Lambrecht talked about the positive personal encounters she had enjoyed during the war in Ukraine, while fireworks exploded around her in Berlin. She was also mocked for her announcement that Germany was supporting Ukraine by sending 5,000 military helmets.

She was replaced by Boris Pistorius. Pistorius defended Scholz against accusations of dithering on whether to approve the delivery of Leopards and insisted there was no division among Ukraine’s Western allies. 

Scholz told the Munich Security Conference that he and other political officials had been “canvassing intensively” to convince more countries to make Leopard 2 donations. He also revealed that Berlin’s gift of 14 Leopard 2A6 vehicles is set to deploy in Ukraine “very soon.”

Several media reports and military analysts have cautioned that a few western tanks would not be a game changer in combat against Russia, particularly given that the latter has escalated its ground offensive to seize territories in the eastern Ukraine region.

The Russian military is preparing to destroy these western tanks as soon as they are deployed on the battlefield. Combat robots were assigned to take on western tanks like Leopards and Abrams. Not to mention the fact that Leopard 2 tanks were built in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Are the vehicles still good and reliable?

Meanwhile, in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was battling another war, a corruption scandal within his government. Could Ukraine be strong enough to defend itself on the battlefield? 

Ukrainians know that in a matter of weeks, they will be on the front lines, facing off against Russian forces. Ukrainians will soon train on Leopard 2 tanks. The training at a German military base near Munster is part of an effort across Europe to get Ukrainian forces acquainted with the tanks and infantry fighting vehicles they have been promised. 

Since the beginning of the war, 600 Ukrainian soldiers have received basic training in Germany, and 1,200 others have been given more specialized instruction. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that more than 10,000 Ukrainian troops had come through Britain for training in the past six months. Many of those serving in Ukraine’s armed forces had not picked up a gun before Russia’s invasion.

The help is coming from the USA, Canada, and Europe. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, “We must provide heavier and more advanced systems to Ukraine, and we must do it faster.”

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