German Air Force Chief Says NATO Ready to Fight Tonight, Moscow Fires Back

Germany’s air force chief, Gen. Holger Neumann, said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph that Germany is prepared to “fight already tonight” if Russia attacks a NATO member. He said the alliance would defend “every centimeter” of its territory and that an attack on Estonia would be treated as seriously as an attack on London.

Neumann also identified possible strategic targets NATO could strike in a conflict, naming Kaliningrad, the Kola Peninsula, the area around Saint Petersburg, and the Black Sea. In parallel, Gen. Christian Freuding of the German army warned that Russia could be capable of attacking NATO territory by 2029 and urged Germany to speed up its rearmament with air-defense systems such as Patriot and Arrow 3.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov responded with unusually harsh attacks on Germany’s leadership. He accused Berlin of “missing Nazi symbols and habits,” called senior German officials “good students of Goebbels,” and said Germany was dropping the disguise that had hidden its “Nazi instincts.”

Russia denied any intention to attack NATO and dismissed the warnings as fabrications. Neumann, however, said the alliance should not underestimate the adaptability of Vladimir Putin’s military or its advanced weapons, including hypersonic missiles and modern fighter jets.