The German Military predicts World War III as soon as 2025

World War 2 ended in 1945, and since then, the world has not seen another worldwide conflict of that magnitude. However, things could change faster than we would like to believe.

German tabloid Bild leaked a confidential report by the German military revealing that Russia could be gearing up for a direct war against NATO member states.

The leaked document reveals several speculative scenarios, but the most concerning out of these hypothetical plans is titled 'Alliance Defense 2025'.

An English translation by The New York Post explains the details: The Russian military would begin with a major offensive in the spring of 2024, feeling confident due to the dwindling Western financial support that is getting Ukraine.

Then, as early as February 2024, Russia could mobilize up to 200,000 new troops into Ukraine.

The hypothetical scenario theorizes that Moscow wouldn’t focus just on Ukraine. The document speculates that by July 2024, Russia would target Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania with “severe cyberattacks”.

At the same time, Russia would seek to stir tension between their citizens and the local population of the Baltic countries to set up things for the next step.

Under the guise of military exercises, tentatively called 'Zapad 2024', the document speculates that Russia could reunite about 50,000 troops in the western end of the country and Belarus.

More importantly, Moscow would mobilize troops into Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave in the Baltic Sea located between Poland and Lithuania, both of which are NATO members.

Image: anton_shakirov / Unsplash

The document speculates that, from then on, the Kremlin could use the excuse of an imminent NATO assault in order to send troops into Poland and Lithuania.

The end result would be taking over the Suwałki Gap, a strip of territory between Poland and Lithuania that would connect Belarus (and its ally, Russia) to Kaliningrad.

British newspaper The Independent highlights that, according to the leaked report, the Kremlin would try to take advantage of the transition period after the 2024 US Presidential Election to have space to maneuver in the Baltic.

On January 2025, after a UN Security Council meeting, the document posits that Putin could then falsely accuse Western nations to be plotting to overthrow him.

Using this excuse, Putin could rally troops into Belarus and then towards the Baltic by March 2025.

30,000 German troops would then be deployed to counter some 70,000 Russian soldiers in Belarus.

NATO, concerned by the possibility of future Russian incursions, would then directly engage in confrontation between Western troops and the Russian military.

Of course, it’s important to remember that this scenario is merely hypothetical, and it’s just one out of many speculative paths the German Armed Forces and NATO in general is currently studying.

According to The New York Post, the Bild contacted sources from the German Ministry of Defense and got the following response: “considering different scenarios, even if they are extremely unlikely, are part of everyday military business, especially in training”.

Germany isn't the only concerned nation in Europe. Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin warned that “there could be a war in Sweden” and that his intention was not to scare the population but prepare them for any possible eventuality.

Meanwhile, Russian news agency TASS informed that a representative from Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry stated that leaked documents from Bild were as important and relevant as “last year’s horoscope”.

“I would not comment on this Bild report,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, emphasizing that: “Recently, this newspaper has regularly stooped to publishing various fake news items and canards.”