The Lead
Will World War III Begin on German Soil?
by Dennis Small (EIRNS) — May. 23, 2026
It is arguably the case that the spark that could unleash nuclear World War III between NATO and Russia (and China) will not come from the war against Iran or even Ukraine—dangerous though those crises continue to be—but from Germany.
On a widely watched TV talk show on ZDF, Germany’s second public television channel, a highly-respected retired brigadier general who was Military Policy Adviser to former Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2006-2013, Erich Vad, finally gave voice to what many Germans have been scared to say out loud. “Your rhetoric is driving us into a war!” he told CDU security expert Roderich Kiesewetter, a well-known war hawk. If the anti-Russian war mobilization of Germany by the Merz government continues; if they insist on bringing Ukraine into the EU on an expedited basis; and if Germany and other NATO countries keep producing and guiding the drones that are raining havoc on Russia, “You will have Russian missile strikes on our country!” Vad warned.
Vad didn’t mince his words: “The day will come when they [the Russians] carry out retaliatory strikes against Europe, against Germany. First conventionally, and if necessary, they’ll go one level higher. Russia is the world’s strongest nuclear power. If we bring Ukraine into Europe, we will bring the war with Russia into Europe!”
Vad was not overstating the problem.
The Russian government is placing the blame squarely on the nations of NATO and the EU for what they call the “barbaric” May 22 attack on the Starobelsk trade school in the Lugansk People’s Republic, in which Ukrainian drones killed 18 adolescents (at last count) and wounded dozens more as they slept in their dormitories. “This constitutes a manifestation of neo-Nazism,” President Vladimir Putin charged. “It was a targeted strike against civilians—straight out of the German Nazi playbook,” a Russian Foreign Ministry statement reported, adding: “These strikes use long-range weapons supplied to the Kiev regime by NATO countries, including drones, and are being carried out with the technical assistance of foreign specialists from well-known NATO member states. We have reliable information that Western capitals are feeding intelligence to the Ukrainian armed forces and helping with targeting.”
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a United Russia Party gathering: “The European Union is now virtually indistinguishable from NATO and has essentially become a replica of that alliance… We are also seeing instances of direct military intervention.”
Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche today described the very idea that Germany would somehow go to war against Russia as totally insane. She called on the Merz government to stop its provocative policies, and for Russia and Germany to instead return to a path of mutually beneficial economic cooperation. She also called on peace-loving forces, political groups and individuals around the world to put a spotlight on this danger, and initiate a serious international discussion of the crisis, and of the policy alternatives to war and economic depression.
Zepp-LaRouche called for the widest possible distribution of her open letter “To the Governments of the United Nations: A Policy to Bring Peace and Development to Southwest Asia”, which is designed to contribute to the policy debate around the need for a new international security and development architecture that is set to occur at the May 26 special session of the United Nations Security Council.
Contents
New World Paradigm
- Putin Again Calls for an 'International System of Equitable and Indivisible Security' (↓)
- Farmers Demonstrate in Mexico City for National Agriculture Policy, End Cartel Control (↓)
Strategic War Danger
- Former Merkel Advisor Demolishes Warmonger on German National TV (↓)
- Putin Calls Attack on Starobelsk Trade School Dormitory 'a Manifestation of Neo-Nazism' (↓)
- Russia Charges NATO Role in ‘Barbaric’ Attack on the Starobelsk Trade School (↓)
- Russian Duma Members Warn of Possible 'European Reich March to the East' (↓)
- Iran Working on 14-point MOU to End War (↓)
- Trump Says Close to Agreement With Iran, but If Not, US Will Hit Iran Hard (↓)
- Lavrov: 'We Are Seeing Instances of Direct Military Intervention' Vs. Russia by the EU (↓)
