General Christian Freuding, head of the Ukraine task force at the German Defense Ministry, said that Russia’s “switching to a war economy was beyond our imagination. We can now see much more clearly, and with this clear view we must recognize that Russia is in a position to grow its armed forces. We expect the Russian armed forces to reach a size of up to 1.5 million soldiers in the next few years, and we can see how the number of combat vehicles is growing. Russia is stockpiling ammunition. There are reports that Russia can produce more military material in three months than all European countries can in a year. And that is why we must expect the Russian armed forces to be able to sustain the intensity of warfare in the long term.”
Arriving at this evaluation in the middle of a “pro-arms buildup” narrative, is quite sobering—implying that Europe would have to more than quadruple its military-industrial production in the next 1-2 years. Restoring constructive cooperation with Russia would be far less expensive.
