German general: "We underestimated Russia's military potential"

According to Major General of the Bundeswehr Christian Freuding, some of Russia's capabilities were not taken into account when analyzing the development of the war in Ukraine. The head of the Situation Center for Ukraine at the German Ministry of Defense told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, DW reports.

"The ability of the Russians to hold out was not initially considered in the way we assess it today," the general said.

Freuding admitted that the Bundeswehr also did not assume that Russia "would succeed in what we are now clearly seeing: they are building up their military-industrial complex, expanding it, increasing production capacity, despite the most severe sanctions regime." The ministry representative suggested that they "did not see or did not want to see" the ability of Russia to find ways to continue supplies from its allies:

"Be it North Korea, China, even southern countries. And even if these countries supply only lighting for refrigerators, it can be used for military purposes," he added.

Speaking about Ukraine, Christian Freuding told the newspaper that expectations of maximum possible military success in the Ukrainian counteroffensive were "definitely exaggerated in retrospect." At the same time, he emphasized that, from a military point of view, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have succeeded.

"80% of Ukraine's territory is still free, and this is after two years of fighting the so-called military superpower. They have regained 50% of the lost territories. The Russian Black Sea Fleet has been de facto pushed out of the western part of the Black Sea."

In addition, Ukraine is increasingly able to strike deep behind the front line, even with the use of artisanal weapons systems, the Bundeswehr general noted.

Freuding emphasized that Russian losses in terms of men and material resources are huge.

"We assume that they have suffered losses of battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles in the four-digit range," he said.

As for the Bundeswehr, Freuding, who also heads the planning staff at the defense ministry, said that an important lesson of the war in Ukraine has been the importance of UAVs.

"We have now created a task force on unmanned aerial vehicles. This will allow us to quickly introduce different types of drones and unmanned defense systems to the troops so that we can start training and experimenting."

According to the general, this process has become relevant not only for mechanized army units of the Bundeswehr.

"The use of drones and defense against them will become a task for all military personnel," he emphasized.

Background. As reported, Germany has blocked more than 4 billion euros worth of Russian assets, including frozen money, economic resources of individuals, and blocked money of the Russian central bank.