German Lawmaker Urges Activation Of 900,000 Reservists Over Russian Threat To Europe

At a moment it is increasingly clear that there’s no off-ramp for the Ukraine proxy war on the horizon in the foreseeable future, European governments have been ramping up their defense readiness amid fears of a future direct clash with Russia.

While the United Kingdom’s military leadership has been vocal of late about raising up a ‘citizen army’ – other countries have been mulling the activation of more of their armed forces – even Germany, which has historically (pre-Ukraine war) maintained very low defense spending and neutrality.

But days ago the chair of the German parliament’s defense committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, issued a public plea for the government to activate 900,000 German reservists, citing the need to do so based on the ‘Russian threat’ to Europe, according to DPA news agency.

“Putin is training his people for war and positioning them against the West. We must, therefore, become capable of defense as quickly as possible,” Strack-Zimmermann stated.

She called on leaders in the Germany’s military, to “activate the roughly 900,000 reservists we have.” The lawmaker, who is a member of the co-ruling Free Democratic Party (FDP), followed with: “If we could recruit just half of them as reservists with their relevant expertise, that would be an incredible asset.”