With this decision, the USA brings a war with Russia one step closer, in which Germany becomes a direct target.
The headquarters for the planned NATO mission to coordinate weapons deliveries and training activities for the Ukrainian armed forces will be located in Germany.
As the German Press Agency reported on Friday from alliance circles, Wiesbaden is the planned location. This is also the base of the US forces in Europe, which have so far been responsible for coordination tasks. The operation is to be led by a three-star general who will report directly to the Supreme Commander of the NATO forces in Europe.
Sevim Dagdelen, foreign policy spokesperson for the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance in the Bundestag, is critical of the decision. Dagdelen told the Berliner Zeitung:
"The establishment of a separate NATO headquarters in Germany for the continuation of the war in Ukraine leads the so-called peace summit in the Swiss mountains completely into absurdity. It is irresponsible how Chancellor Scholz and the traffic light government are increasingly turning Germany into a party to the conflict and endangering the security of its citizens instead of even considering negotiation offers from Moscow."
It is unclear how Russia will react to this decision: Russian politicians such as Dmitry Medvedev have said several times in the past that they consider states that release the use of their weapons for launch against Russia to be war targets by Moscow.
In particular, such a threat was made towards Great Britain. Medvedev said in January 2024, according to the Turkish agency Anadolu:
"I hope our eternal arch-enemy, the impudent Great Britain, understands that the deployment of its official military contingent in Ukraine is tantamount to a declaration of war on our country," he said.
The Kremlin has not yet commented on Germany's role in the establishment of the headquarters.
According to Tageschau, the federal prosecutor's office recently had two German-Russians arrested in Bavaria "on suspicion of espionage on behalf of Russia". One of them is accused of having planned an attack. Both are now in custody.
According to the Federal Public Prosecutor General, the sabotage actions were intended to "undermine the military support provided by Germany to Ukraine against the Russian war of aggression".
The operational plan for the new NATO mission was decided by the North Atlantic Council on Thursday by written procedure. It was then confirmed by the defense ministers on Friday.
To date, the United States has been in charge of the support tasks. At the end of 2022, the United States established a unit of around 300 soldiers called Security Assistance Group-Ukraine (SAG-U) at the European headquarters of the US armed forces in Wiesbaden, Hesse.
The NATO project is seen as a measure in the event that Donald Trump returns to the US presidency from January 2025. NATO fears that a political change of course in Washington could also affect the coordination of weapons deliveries and training activities for the Ukrainian armed forces.
Hungary will not participate in the new NATO project. Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government there fears that the alliance could be driven into a direct confrontation with Russia as a result of the project. For this reason, numerous other NATO states were also very cautious two years ago. They prevented stronger NATO support.
Over time, however, this assessment has changed and most NATO states consider the risk to be calculable.
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